Dark Angel
by DiscordianSamba
Summary: AU. When the most popular girl in school takes a swan dive off a tall building, seventeen year old Sam Manson decides to investigate- and ends up with more than she bargained for. Running headfirst into a decidedly supernatural problem, she becomes entangled with two teens with secrets of their own, and a ghost far more terrifying than anything she has ever known.
1. Cloudy, with a Chance of Falling Bodies

Author's Note: Hohohohoho, the new AU, which some of you might have seen the preview picture for up on my DA or tumblr. Anyways, Dark Angel, which takes it's name from an old story, which it has a handful of aspects in common with (runaway Danny, Danny and Sam not knowing each other). A bit darker plot line here in comparison to some other stories, I guess. I should probably warn you adamant Danny and Sam shippers, since apparently shipping is ~serious business~ in this fandom, that this is a Danny x Valerie story, cause I ship it too. Ship almost everything with almost everyone, that's my policy.

Danny Phantom isn't mine, though Umbra is. I hope you all enjoy!

* * *

Dark Angel

Chapter One: Cloudy, with a Chance of Falling Bodies

It was probably the falling cell phone that caught people's attention first.

It crashed down onto the ground, breaking into pieces, causing the curious onlookers, after realizing what it was (or had been, there not being much of it left anymore), to look up, wondering where it had come from.

And that was when they saw it.

Or her, rather.

At least, they assumed it was a her. It was a bit hard to tell from that distance, really.

They didn't need to be able to tell the sex of the person in question though to know what was about to happen however. Horrified onlookers looked up, open mouthed and gawking as the girl in question took a step forward, already teetering on the side of a ledge, now just an inch or so away from a surely lethal fall. Wind kicked up, blowing her long black hair about her, obscuring her face largely from sight. A few onlookers sprang into action, some shooting up at her not to do it, others dialing for the police, and others still bursting into the building, but it was already too late, and the girl took another step forward, where there was no longer anything to support her.

Gravity did everything else, causing the girl to plummet towards the Earth. For a split second before she hit the ground, the nearest of the onlookers could have sworn that she was laughing as she fell, right before the impact with the ground silenced her forever.

She had fallen face first, making identifying her by her face impossible- there wasn't much of a face to look at anymore, skull crushed. She was a high schooler, and a member of the cheer squad, by the looks of her blue, white, and red cheer uniform. It took the onlookers a moment to realize that the uniform was in fact, _not _red, at least, it hadn't been designed that way. Borley High School's school colors were simply blue and white, and in a moment of gut wrenching horror, they realized the red was in fact, not fabric, but her blood.

Someone screamed. Someone with a better head on their shoulders called the police- at this point, an ambulance would be useless. Sirens flashed and people gathered, despite being chased away by the police when they got too close. One of the people who kept on getting too close for the police's likings was a teenage girl, seventeen years old, who looked like she could be in the same grade as the dead girl.

She had black hair, worn short, part of it pulled into a ponytail, and dark violet eyes, and dressed in clothing not out of place with the goth subculture, a black jacket over a dark purple top and a black and violet plaid skirt, worn over black stockings, and a pair of combat boots two sizes too large. It wasn't the first time they'd seen this girl hanging around too close to crime scenes, and it probably wouldn't be the last either. Borley's very own amateur sleuth and all around snoop, Samantha Manson, who often found herself being dragged kicking and screaming out of police investigations. She wrote her own newsletter, which was handed out amongst the students of Borley High School, and was likewise posted online.

The scene was roped off, and the police began to investigate the deceased girl's identity. The broken cell phone held no clues, rendered inoperable from it's fall from twenty feet up. A wallet was found near the body, however, presumably having fallen out after she had jumped. It was hot pink, just like the shattered cell phone, her favorite color perhaps, a heart stitched into the leather. The all too curious onlooker didn't need to hear what the police said to each other afterwards to know whose wallet it was, and therefore whose corpse it was, there was only one girl in school that was on the cheer squad that had one like that.

Sam Manson gawked, for what have must been the first time in many years. Not much fazed her, not much got past her tough exterior and openly caused her shock or horror. The corpse hadn't done it, though this was the first time she had ever seen a dead body- but learning the corpse's identity, that was something else entirely. She held the camera in her hands carefully, grateful it was hanging around her neck, otherwise she might have dropped it in shock. "_Paulina Sanchez?"_ She said the name without meaning to, as if the very words were torn out of her lips by some supernatural force, violet eyes transfixed on the corpse that lay in front of her.

"You knew her?" One of the officers spoke up, having caught what she said. He approached Sam, glancing down at her, quirking an eyebrow at the camera, and seemed to recognize her through it. Her face was not entirely unfamiliar to police officers, after all. "Oh right. Borley's own amateur journalist sleuth, huh? What was it again, Samara Mansley?"

"_Sam Manson_." Sam corrected him. "And you say that like you have problems with what I do. All I try to do is provide the public with the truth. Hardly harmful, unless you have something to hide." She said, a sour note in her voice. This was neither the time nor the place to argue about this matter, however, so she dropped it. "But as for knowing her- I do, I mean, sort of. We weren't exactly friends, but everyone at Borley High School knew Paulina Sanchez." She told the officer. "She was the most popular girl in school, captain of the cheer squad- she could have any boy come at her beck and call if she wanted them. A regular queen bee." She told the officer plainly, though she was unable to keep a mild note of disgust out of her voice.

"Doesn't sound like you liked her very much." The officer observed. "Any possible reasons why she would have decided to jump off a building? Doesn't sound much like the type, from your description."

"Paulina?" Sam said, shaking her head. "No, none that I can think of. I mean, she was acting a little strange today now that I think about it. She was acting like she was just sort of going through the motions, if you get what I mean?" She asked him.

"Yeah, yeah, I get you." The officer nodded his head. "And you can't think of any reasons as to why she would have decided to commit suicide?"

"Not one. Paulina always got whatever she wanted, her father spoiled her terribly. I don't think there was anything horrible going on behind the scenes either, she was about as shallow as you could get." Sam told him, chuckling bitterly. "You could stand in a puddle of her and not get your feet wet. It couldn't have been a break up or anything, because usually, Paulina's the one doing the breaking up."

"Real man eater, huh?" The officer observed. "Shame about the face." He muttered underneath his breath, as some of his coworkers began to draw a chalk outline around the body, getting ready for it to be carried off. Someone else had already bagged the wallet and the cell phone. "You know the names of any students close to her? We might have some questions for them."

"Mostly the A-List." Sam told him, shrugging her shoulders. "She didn't much hang out with anyone else, not unless she wanted something from them. Dash Baxter, Star Rivers, Kwan Chen..." She recalled the names off the top of her head, and the officer wrote them down. "You guys might want to talk to the cheer squad coach as well, Mrs. Testlaff. Basically, anyone at Borley High School whose in the 'in crowd' are the people you want to talk to. They aren't _exactly _hard to find."

"Right, thanks." The officer nodded. "Now scram, Manson. We don't need an extra pair of hands poking around in the crime scene, especially not ones untrained in proper police procedures."

"I helped." Sam pointed out, half-glaring at the officer.

"And for that, I'm letting you keep the film this time." He told her, tapping the side of her camera with his police notebook. "Now scram. We've got enough onlooker trouble as it is already."

Sam glowered at the officer, but she knew when not to push her luck. Turning on her heel, she stopped to take one last photo as the body was carried off on a sheet covered gurney. After that, she stalked away, various thoughts all mixed up in her head, all of which lead back to only massive confusion. Sam wasn't exactly an idiot who oversimplified it, she knew that things like suicides were complex issues, and not always easily explained, and that the reasons behind them weren't always that obvious- sometimes they never were. But Paulina Sanchez committing suicide wasn't right with her, didn't sit right. The cheer squad captain was not the sort of person who even entertained the thought of suicide. She doubted the chance of there being some kind of hidden problem at home- Paulina's father clearly loved his daughter deeply, and would never do a single thing to hurt her.

Couldn't be boy issues, Paulina never had a problem in getting the guy she wanted, and then dumping him when she was through. Relationships were something of a game for her, and Sam didn't think she'd ever seriously considered dating someone. She still didn't think that Paulina would kill herself over a boy, even if she'd found one that she couldn't have. Grades? No, Paulina didn't care about her grades, certainly not enough to kill herself over them. And surely, nobody bullied Paulina- she was the one mostly doing the bullying. Guilt? No, there was no reason for Paulina to have suddenly developed a conscience overnight.

"_Arrrgh_!" Sam ruffled her black hair, growing more frustrated by the second. "It doesn't make _any _sense." She spat out, kicking a nearby stone in frustration, watching it skitter on down the pavement. She flinched a little when it hit someone's ankle, and flushed, continuing walking like nothing had happened.

She briefly pondered the idea that it hadn't been a suicide for a moment, but she dismissed that quickly. No, fate had perhaps planted her right there at the scene when the cell phone fell. She had seen Paulina walk off the ledge out of her own free will, and there had been nobody else there. Drugs, maybe? No, Paulina wasn't the brightest light in the shed, but she was smarter than drugs. She wasn't even entirely sure if there were a drug out there that would just cause people to waltz of buildings, not that easily. Something had surely been _wrong _with Paulina when she had jumped, but it wasn't drugs, something in Sam's gut told her that.

"At least I know what the main story of tomorrow's newsletter will be." Sam mumbled, glancing down at her camera. She had better call Tucker up, and get him over to her place. They were going to have a lot of work to do that night, Sam thought. It had been awhile since the two of them had pulled an all nighter.

And for some reason, Sam had this sick feeling in her stomach, as if this was somehow only the beginning.

* * *

It was late, late enough that the streets of Borley were all but empty, the population of the bustling city now largely asleep. There was nobody at the scene of that afternoon's suicide, though it was still roped off. There had been no question in the police's minds that it had, in fact, been a suicide. A rather unusual one, one that they would have to look a bit deeper into, but it hadn't been a murder, at any rate. Therefore, it was just the right time for some investigative work to be done, and this was what Sam had decided to do, feeling that there was much more to this story than just what the police thought.

"Sam, I'm _not _sure this is such a good idea." Seventeen year old Tucker Foley, Sam's best friend and partner in crime, as it were, muttered underneath his breath as they crept towards the place where Paulina's body had hit the ground.

"It'll be fine." Sam whispered. "Besides, you seemed pretty confident you could hack into the office building's security, Tucker."

"Well I can." Tucker hissed, clearly offended that someone would question his skills, as he brought out his PDA. "It's just the moral question that bothers me. Should we really be doing this, Sam? I mean, it was just a suicide, right? It's not like we've got some kind of killer wandering around Borley or anything. You said yourself that you didn't see anyone up there, and that Paulina stepped off of her own free will."

"When has the 'moral question' ever stopped you, Tucker?" Sam asked, glancing back at her friend, raising her brows. "The problem here is that it was _Paulina_ who decided to jump off a building." Sam told him. "Something for which I've been unable to find a single plausible reason, and I doubt that the police will be able to as well. There's something going on here, Tucker, something _more_."

"If you say so. Who am I to question the great detective girl?" Tucker rolled his eyes, wincing as Sam elbowed him in the side for that quip. "I was just joking, geez, relax. You get too uptight sometimes, Sam." He told her, messing with a few things on his PDA. "Alright, there, I'm into the office building's security. According to the blueprints I, ahem, acquired off the Internet, there's a back door we can go in through and get up to the top of the building with."

"And the cameras won't catch us, and we won't trip any alarms?" Sam asked.

"Not unless someone sees you in person, no- wait." Tucker frowned, glancing incredulously over towards his friend. "What do you mean, _us? I'm_ not walking up twenty flights of stairs, I'll die."

"As out of shape as you are, Tuck, I _seriously _doubt that." Sam rolled her eyes. "Come on, it'll do you good, and I need someone tech savvy by my side if I get myself into trouble."

"When _don't _you get yourself into trouble?" Tucker shot back. "Alright, _fine_, but I expect you to buy me a deluxe Nasty Burger tomorrow."

"Deal." Sam said, nodding her head. "Now let's go before someone sees us out here." She told him, following her friend to the aforementioned back door. Finding that it was of course, locked, Sam plucked a wire and a pair of rubber gloves, a second pair of which she passed on to Tucker, from a small pouch that hung off her belt and knelt down in front of the door, pulling on the gloves. Tucker used his PDA as an impromptu flashlight, shining light over the lock. He'd already shut down the office building's alarm system, and just hoped that nobody got the idea to rob anyone here tonight, otherwise the two of them were going to be in big trouble.

Not that this would be anything new, Tucker and Sam got into trouble all the time. Sometimes in too much trouble, Tucker thought, sometimes wondering if Sam had the same kind of self preservation instincts that he did. She could be pretty reckless when she was on the scent of a story, like she was being right now, in fact. Thank goodness that Borley was mostly a peaceful town, Tucker would hate to think where the two of them would be if they lived in some place that was more crime infested.

"Gotcha." Sam smirked as the lock gave, and she pocketed her lock picking wire. "I _told _you this would be a handy skill. Not everything is electronic these days, after all."

"I can't believe your grandma taught you how to pick locks." Tucker said, raising an eyebrow. "Why does she know how to do that anyways? Seems like an unusual skill for an old lady to have."

"She wasn't _always _old, you know. She lead a pretty exciting life when she was our age. Where do you think I got the journalism bug from?" Sam asked him, carefully opening up the door. After confirming that it didn't trigger any alarms, silent or otherwise, the two carefully headed into the building. It was dark, the stairwell it led straight into not lit up by anything other than emergency lights. It sure seemed empty, which was to be expected, since they weren't sure how many people would be up at two in the morning, working.

Well, aside from _them_, at any rate.

"I don't know, I just sort of assumed you hit your head as a baby or something." Tucker joked, which got him another elbow to the ribs. "Just kidding, geez, Sam. You've got a good elbow." He observed, following her up the stairs, both teenagers doing their best to be quiet, speaking to each other in whispers. After finding that the stairwell carried their voices more than they liked, they decided to stop talking until they reached the roof.

Twenty flights of stairs, and one winded Tucker later, they reached the door to the roof. Tucker had to pause to catch his breath, slumping down against the wall. "Remind me..." he gasped out, between pants for breath. "...not to do that again." He told Sam, wiping some sweat off his brow.

"I keep telling you, you should spend less time browsing the Internet, and more time outside, Tucker." Sam scolded him lightly, barely even winded. "You're seriously out of shape. No _wonder _you're flunking PE."

"That was not a mystery that needed to be solved." Tucker observed. "And sorry not everyone can be as physically fit as you, Superwoman."

"Hey, you gotta be in shape if you want to be in this line of work." Sam shrugged her shoulders. "That, and it's just good for your health. Now give me some light, Tucker, so I can unlock this door." She said, reaching for the handle, and giving it a testing twist. She blinked a little when it opened up on it's own. "Or maybe they just left it unlocked after someone walked off the roof of this very building, okay, good plan, building supervisors."

"Somebody's due to get fired." Tucker observed. "Well, if it was unlocked at the time of Paulina's death, then we know how she got up here, at least. Somebody in charge of this building is lousy with remembering things need to be locked."

"Tell me about it." Sam rolled her eyes, opening the door all the way. Peering out, she ascertained that there was nobody else on the roof. "Right, coast's clear, come on Tuck." She motioned to him, stepping outside the door. Her friend followed behind her, placing a stone by the door, to prevent it from shutting all the way behind them, and possibly locking them out. It had happened once, to the two of them, and after Sam's lock picking wire had snapped in the door, they had been stuck outside on the roof all night.

It was also during winter, Tucker recalled, shivering at the thought. _Not _on his list of things he wanted to do again.

"Ah yes, helpful crime tape." Sam said, grinning as she spotted the yellow tape sealing off an area of the roof. "Not afraid of heights, are you Tucker?"

"With the kind of life you have me lead?" Tucker laughed, shaking his head. "I would have gotten over one a long time ago. I'm good."

"Well, there's no fence here." Sam observed. "Nothing stopping someone from going over the ledge if they really wanted to. No real mystery there." She said, snapping several pictures of the scene. Passing her camera to Tucker first, not wanting it to slip off her neck and fall, she peered over the ledge, staring down. She could spot the place where Paulina had landed from here, the crime tape that roped it off shining a little under the street lights. "Long fall. If you wanted to end your life, this would probably be the best place in the city to do it."

"School's going to be a mess tomorrow." Tucker noted. "You're not thinking of talking the A-List, are you?" He asked her.

"Probably. At least I need to have words with Dash and Star." Sam said, stepping away from the ledge. "Doesn't something just feel _wrong _about this to you, Tucker?"

"That your reporter's intuition you're always going off about?" Tucker asked her, arching an eyebrow. "No, but, all jokes aside, yeah, something about this whole business seems sour to me." Tucker told her, frowning deeply.

"I've got this sick feeling in my stomach, like we're going to see more of these." Sam confessed to him, looking grim as she took her camera back from her friend, putting it around her neck. Sirens blared then, startling the pair, who looked around, half expecting the police to burst through the roof door and cuff the both of them. When they realized that it was coming from somewhere else, they both let out a sigh of relief, before they exchanged a look and hurried back over towards the roof's ledge. Heading down the street was an ambulance, escorted by two police cars. The pair watched as the zoomed down the street, finally stopping somewhere off in the distance, just beyond their view.

"Now I don't have much of a reporter's intuition, but I think we _might _want to check that out, Sam." Tucker told her, glancing over at her.

"I think you might be right." Sam nodded her head. Carefully the two teens headed back towards the roof door, neatly closing it behind them, and rushing down the stairs.

* * *

"They gone?" A young woman's voice asked, as she watched the two teenagers dash out the door after hearing sirens. They were the reason that the door to the roof had been unlocked in the first place. "Looks like we're not the only two inquisitive minds in this town, huh, Ghost Boy?" She asked, glancing over at her companion, and quickly caught the look on his face. "You worried about the sirens?"

"I can sense another one." Her companion said grimly, lips set in a tight frown. "It's too late to do anything though."

"Another one lost to the soul sucker, huh?" She observed, shaking her head, putting a hand on her friend's shoulder. "You can't save them all, Phantom. We just got here after all. One or two losses is sort of to be expected."

"I know." Phantom heaved a sigh, running a hand through his hair. "I know that, Valerie." He said, glancing over at her. "Doesn't make it any easier when they do happen." He told her, shaking his head. "I'd rather there not be any deaths at all."

"And we've been working on that, but the thing's a right slippery bastard." Valerie told him. "You still aren't blaming yourself for Ember, are you?" She asked him, concern in her voice. "I already told you, there was nothing we could have done. We didn't know about Umbra back then, Phantom, and now we do."

"Yeah, and four years of chasing it have amounted to nothing." Phantom told her, rolling his eyes. "Can't blame me for being more than a little frustrated, Valerie. We both lost important things to Umbra, things that we can't get back, and the most we've been able to do about it four years of hunting him is to save a handful of people. It's more than a little bit frustrating."

"Come on Danny, don't be that way." Valerie told him, using his real name for a change. "I'm just as frustrated as you are. But we are doing the best that we can, and we'll get Umbra some day. We got close to him in the last city, didn't we? We're catching up to him each time we meet him. It's only a matter of time now."

"And then you can go home." Phantom smiled a little at her. "Mom and dad would be happy to see you, at least, Valerie. I'm sure they'd take you in with open arms if you came to them."

"And what about you?" She asked, meeting eyes with her friend.

"I can't go back to my parents like _this."_ Phantom said, waving a hand over his general appearance. Valerie took a moment to look at him, really look at him for the first time in what must have been years. Snow white hair, now shaggy and overgrown, just touching his shoulders, from four years of not having cut it, part of it tied up in a short ponytail, and azure eyes, which seemed to glow on their own accord. Skin that was cold to the touch, she knew, the faintest of pulses, and the smallest of heartbeats. Stuck somewhere between here and there, not quite human, and not quite dead.

"And the things I can do," Phantom waved a hand, which faded from view, though nothing was obscuring it, turning invisible. It was a pretty handy power, Valerie thought, especially when you weren't trying to be found. Phantom had hid them this way from the two slightly younger teens earlier. "...are pretty damn ghostlike. And you know just as well as I do who my folks are, and what they do for a living, Valerie. There's no way I can go home to them when I'm half ghost, or _whatever _it is that I am."

Invisibility wasn't his only power, either. No, it was just the start of an array of strange, supernatural powers her friend had gained. He could turn intangible, sense ghosts, walk on walls and levitate to some degree- couldn't fly though, apparently there was something about his all too solid human body which kept him from doing that. There were the ectoplasmic blasts, and perhaps most attention catching was his ability to create and manipulate ice. Enhanced physical abilities came along for the ride as well, as well as the ability to see in the dark and quick healing.

"You're Danny Fenton, my best friend." Valerie told him, giving him a mock punch to his cheek. "I keep telling you, your parents would be okay with you even if you went back to Amity Park like that. They love you- Jazz and Dani do too. This wouldn't change anything. You're still you, after all."

"I wish I could be as optimistic as you, Valerie." Phantom lamented, shaking his head. "If I can't fix this, I'm not going home."

"Then I'm not going back either." Valerie shook her head. "After all, there's nothing left for me back there. And we've got a thing going on here, as it is. We travel around the country hunting ghosts. Mostly Umbra, but we've taken care of a few nasty spooks on the way, haven't we?"

"That's true. I guess it hasn't all been for naught, then. You don't mind being a ghost hunting hobo with me, then?" Phantom flashed her a small grin, a rare expression to see on his face these days. He used to smile more, but that was before he had part of his soul ripped out by Umbra, causing him to become what he was today. Just as he had said, they had both lost things to the soul stealing ghost. Danny had lost part of his soul, and part of his humanity with it, and Valerie had lost her father, her only family. They had _both _lost a best friend, burned to cinders when she had set her own house on fire.

"Not at all. It's a bit fun, actually. I mean, the dead bodies aren't. Dead bodies will _never _be fun." Valerie said quickly. "Like this one. Closed coffin funeral for sure." She observed, eyes falling on the taped off spot from which the cheerleader had jumped. "From what I gathered from the locals, she was a popular girl, queen of her high school. Far cry from what we were back in high school." She chuckled a little.

"Tell me about it." Phantom waved a hand, rolling his eyes. "At least it was an easy clean up this time." He told her. "Should we head on the next place, Red?" He asked her, switching to Valerie's codename.

"Unless you can handle it by yourself, Ghost Boy," Valerie arched an eyebrow, "...otherwise, we're going to have to wait awhile for the commotion to die down."

"Good point." Phantom grimaced. "Who do you think those two were, anyways?"

"Sam and Tucker." Valerie told him, shrugging her shoulders. "That's what they were calling each other, at least. Sounds like one of them is a rookie reporter, or fancies herself as one at least."

"We should probably be sure to keep an eye on them." Phantom told her, glancing her way. "Umbra likes to target snoops who start to investigate the mysterious rash of suicides that he causes. Wouldn't want them to put themselves in harm's way."

"Want me to approach 'em for you then?" Valerie asked. "You shouldn't be so nervous around people, Phantom. You still look human, mostly."

"Yeah, except for the fact that I glow in the dark." Phantom observed, rolling his eyes. It was true. It wasn't there during the day, or it was just too faint for human eyes to pick up, but at night, Phantom gave off a slight ghostly glow that was pretty hard to miss. "You're better with people than I am these days anyways Valerie. Half a soul missing and all that."

"We'll get it back, somehow." Valerie promised him, taking his hand and giving it a squeeze. "Umbra's kept it, he wants the whole thing after all." There were things left unvoiced, the chance that if they ever got too close, Umbra could destroy it to spite him, or the chance that even if they got it back, they couldn't figure out how to return it to Phantom, or even if they could do that, that nothing would change, and he would remain the way he was forever.

"It's okay, Valerie, I know." Phantom gave her a small smile. "Anyways, we've still got work to do, we can't be hanging around here. Let's go prep for some more cleanup, shall we?" He asked her.

"We shall!" Valerie said, giving him a small smile back.

* * *

"First Paulina, and now the school lunch lady decides to hang herself. At least this time it was far less dramatic." Sam said dryly, as the pair were shooed out of the crime scene by a rather perturbed looking officer. "Too much of a coincidence for me, Tucker. I always got the impression the old lady loved her job." Not that she would really know, seeing as she rarely, if ever went through the lunch line. She didn't think the lunch lady liked her much, not after her experimental all vegetarian menu she had the school board try out when she was in her freshman year. Woman loved her meat, apparently.

"Lunch lady is a bit easier to swallow than Paulina, though." Tucker commented. "You think they're connected somehow?" He asked her.

"Somehow." Sam said, frowning deeply. "Two suicides in one day is unusual for Borley. I don't know about other places, but _here_? Things like this just don't happen here." She told him, pausing as she pulled her jacket a little tighter about herself. "And is it just me, or is it freezing out here? It's still early fall, it shouldn't be getting this cold yet."

"Huh." Tucker frowned, zipping up his jacket now too. "It was fine just a second ago. That's kind of weird." He yawned then, lack of sleep combined with climbing up twenty flights of stairs, running back down said stairs, and then sprinting down the street to find out where the ambulance had gone finally catching up to him. "Look, Sam, is there any chance we could continue this in the morning though? I'm really wiped out here, and we still do have school tomorrow, unless they decide to cancel it."

"Doubtful." Sam noted, then nodded her head. "Yeah, you go on home, Tucker, get some sleep. I'm going to stay up a little longer. Always have been a night owl, after all." She flashed him a small grin.

"Thanks Sam." Tucker breathed a sigh of relief. "I'll catch you tomorrow, then." He waved at her, before he headed off for home. Hopefully he wouldn't just collapse from exhaustion in the middle of the street and wake up to find himself covered in pigeons again. Once was enough.

"See ya." Sam waved, watching him trot off. She turned back towards the house where the police and the ambulance had been gathered at, watching as someone covered in a sheet was carried out on a gurney. The lunch lady, Sam assumed. She had overheard her husband say that he had no idea anything had ever been wrong with her, and when they'd been finally shooed out, she had last seen the chubby man comforting his young daughter, who had been woken up by all the noise. She couldn't have been older than five or six, Sam thought, and wondered what was going to happen to her now.

That sick feeling in her stomach still wouldn't go away, warning her that there was still more to come. She shivered in the cold night area, watching as the body was carried away, and the ambulance drove off. No flashing sirens now, no need for urgency now that the woman was already well and truly dead.

In one day, two people Sam had known had died. It was a little hard to swallow. She hung around the crime scene for a little longer after that, but after determining that she wasn't going to get anything more out of this, she decided that maybe she too, should try and get some sleep. She wasn't sure if she would be able to, but it was worth trying at least. In spite of her earlier words to Tucker about a night owl, she suddenly found herself overcome with a wave of exhaustion, her shoulders feeling heavy. She could have sworn that it had just grown _colder_, but it was probably just her imagination.

"Right, bed sounds good." Sam muttered, rubbing sleep out of her eyes. She headed down the street, growing wearier with every step she took. At some point, something in the back of Sam's mind, the part that was fascinated with the occult and beings of myth and legends, supernatural creatures, flared up, and told her that something was _wrong_. This exhaustion that she felt was hardly anything normal, and she suddenly felt like she could barely even keep her eyes open, her shoulders sore like she had been hauling heavy things around all day.

"Don't move." A cold voice spoke up, and she felt an ice cold hand placed on her shoulder. Though she wasn't much of one to follow orders, she found herself all but freezing in place, the exhaustion threatening to overcome her, like she was going to fall asleep right here, right now, in the middle of the sidewalk.

And then, _nothing_.

Sam was suddenly wide awake, the ache in her shoulders was gone, and she realized that it was too warm to have her jacket zipped up. Furthermore, the stranger was also gone, without a trace. Sam whirled around, eyes darting about as she tried to find him, but it was to no avail. She hadn't even gotten a very good look at him, all she had seen was a flash of white hair, and the impression that he might be just a year or two older than her. Male, unmistakably, a flash of blue, perhaps from his eyes.

Was it her imagination?

No, it wasn't. Sam knew it in her bones, that what had just happened had been real. And something in her mind clicked, something finally falling into place. What she had just experienced was a brush with the other side, of that Sam had very little doubts, and suddenly, she knew, knew that these past two deaths weren't natural at all, weren't even suicides.

_Something _not _someone_, had been behind them, what they were dealing with wasn't likely to be human. Armed with that knowledge, Sam realized what she needed to do, and pulled out her cell phone, starting off in a run. Wasting time was bad, wasting time meant lives, she realized that much already. "Hey, Talia?" She said to the weary voice that answered the phone. "Look, sorry, I know it's late, but I need you to unlock the Skulk and Lurk. It's important. I need to see your _old _books." She told the weary shopkeeper. "Yeah, I'll be there in five, maybe ten. _Yes_, it's important. Thank you Talia."

Hanging up the phone, Sam sprinted towards Borley's only goth bookstore, probably breaking her own record for speed and distance as she did so. Somehow, she got there before Talia's car drove up, and was catching her breath when the older woman got out of the car. Sam apologized to the red headed woman, and promised her that she would make it up to her one day. Talia gave Sam the keys to the place, and told her to lock up behind her if she wasn't still here when it was time to open in the morning, and to put everything back where she had found it. She didn't ask what Sam needed from the bookstore, this not being the first time Sam had called her in the middle of the night for urgent access to something inside the Skulk and Lurk.

"Thanks again, Talia!" Sam called out to her as she got back in her car and drove off, ducking inside the bookstore. "I hope her coffee machine is working." She remarked, as she closed the door behind her. She got the feeling that she wasn't going to get any sleep tonight after all.

Oh well- that was what Mr. Lancer's class was for, right?

* * *

"A bit of early cleanup." Valerie observed as Phantom returned to her side. The two had positioned themselves on the rooftop of the house directly across that of the lunch lady's.

"Whoever just died seemed to have a grudge against reporter girl." Phantom told her. Thankfully, he had noticed the black blobs of leftover negative emotions gathering on the girl before she had left. Who knows what would have happened if he hadn't. Umbra created far more problems than he was worth whenever he cropped up somewhere. He wasn't sure if the raven haired girl would have died from the contamination, but she probably would have been left extremely ill.

"Ah." Valerie noted dryly. She couldn't see the contamination herself, not without a special visor she had put together and perfected over the years. It wasn't quite as impressive as the hoverboard, but it was pretty nice. The hoverboard, admittedly, had been taken from Fenton Works before she had left Amity Park, although the Fentons had never actually been able to get it to work. Unresolved balancing issues- Valerie had solved them, however. "You don't normally like showing yourself to people. I could have taken care of it you know."

"You wouldn't have been fast enough. She was nearly drowning in them." Phantom told her. "Don't know what she did to invoke such strong feelings of dislike though."

"Probably it was just because she happened to be around, more than the dead woman hating her that much." Valerie observed. "Well, we should still case the place for more once the police leave. Looks like she had a little girl, too. Shame, that." She shook her head, sympathizing for the small girl. She knew what it was like to lose a parent- even if she had been too young to remember the death of her mother, the death of her father was still vivid inside of her head, and it drove her forward to put an end once and for all to Umbra.

Though destroying something that had been around for centuries was a little easier said than done. Umbra was powerful, they had come to understand that much, if nothing else.

Still, they were only just teenagers, a pair of eighteen year olds, and they had a lot of time ahead of them, and nothing else to do with their lives. They had left Amity Park the night after Danny had a run in with Umbra, that left him changed, and caused him to cease using his own name anymore. Valerie had nothing to look back to, but she knew that Danny- Phantom, rather, did sometimes. She was the one who had encouraged him to come with her after she saw how badly he was freaking about what his parents would do if they saw what he had become.

Perhaps that hadn't been the best idea. On the other hand, without Phantom around, Valerie could have been killed at least ten times over. She was tough, but she was also still only human.

"Seems like you put an idea in her head though." Valerie noted after a moment. "She took off like a jackrabbit after you left her."

"So I noticed." Phantom said, chuckling a little. "We need to keep an eye on that one. We don't want someone else ending up like me."

"Only she doesn't have a Specter Deflector to protect her." Valerie noted. "Don't worry, Phantom, I'll keep an eye on her. I'll make sure she and her little friend with the red beret don't get in over their heads. And you can concentrate on tracking down Umbra, and damage control."

"Right." Phantom nodded his head, then glanced over at Valerie. He opened his mouth to ask her something, but apparently changed his mind at the last second. "Let's do that."

Valerie watched him for a moment, before smiling back at him, and nodding her head, giving his hand a squeeze. "If you were going to ask me if I wanted to back out now and head back for Amity Park, you're dreaming." She said. "I'll see this through with you Phantom. It's the least I can do."

"You don't owe me anything Valerie." Phantom told her. "You're human, normal still. You have your own life that you could be living. I don't want to keep you bogged down in this revenge business forever if you don't want to."

"It's not about me owing you anything, Danny." Valerie said, again, switching to his real name. "It's not even about revenge anymore. It's about doing the right thing. Someone has to stop Umbra. Every life he takes is a life that would have kept on spinning without him, and we can't let him keep doing this. You feel the same way, right?"

"Yeah." Phantom nodded his head, looking grim. "It's just- I'm sorry you had to give up your future for this, Valerie."

"Hey, it was _my _idea." Valerie assured him. "Once all this is over, I'll figure something out. Like I said, maybe I'll keep up the freelance ghost hunting gig. Do it for cash this time though. As nice as it is to have a friend who can sneak you into any hotel room in the country, I'd kind of like to actually pay for the things I need for a change."

"Well, that's one thing about ghost powers that are convenient." Phantom noted, raising his brows. "The ultimate runaway cheat code. We would probably have records longer than our arms by now if someone was keeping track."

"Longer than us even." Valerie joked, then turned her attention back towards the house across from them. "They're all heading out, husband is taking the daughter with him. Probably going in for more questions." Valerie noted.

"Then that would be our cue, Red." Phantom said.

"Right you are, Ghost Boy." Valerie said, pulling out the red tinted visor, and placing it over her eyes, one hand resting on the ecto-pistol inside of her bag. "Right you are."


	2. The Girl in the Rafters

Author's Note: Here's Chapter Two! The plot thickens and all of that. Look out because I am killing everyone up in here! Okay not really, I am lying. As always, Danny Phantom doesn't belong to me, although Umbra and Talia do. (Also I came back to this to fix a really critical error I made so if this shows up in your inbox again, whoops, sorry!)

* * *

**Dark Angel**

Chapter Two: The Girl in the Rafters

* * *

Being woken up by someone stepping on the back of your head was not exactly the most pleasant experience in the world, Sam decided.

"Ah, you came to." Talia remarked, looking down at the weary looking goth girl that up until a moment ago, had been leaning against the wall of the Skulk and Lurk's back room, off limits to everyone save employees and a few favored customers. Sam had been fast asleep in what looked to be a rather uncomfortable position, head tilted slightly to one side, a large tome in her lap, legs crossed underneath it. She was even drooling slightly, the red headed shopkeeper noted with some amusement. "I was worried I was going to try more extreme methods." She said coolly, though there was a vague look of disappointment on her face, placing her foot back down on the ground.

"Do you _normally _wake people up by kicking their heads around?" Sam groaned, rubbing her neck, finding to her great annoyance that it had gotten horribly stiff. Her whole body felt sore, in fact, from sleeping as she had. She wasn't exactly sure when she had fallen asleep, but judging from how little rested she was, she guessed that she hadn't been asleep for very long, an hour, hour and a half tops.

"Not normally, no." Talia said, assessing the goth teen and her choice of books. "A guidebook to obscure supernatural creatures. Interesting choice." She remarked. "Find what you were looking for?" She inquired.

"No, not really." Sam frowned, cracking her neck, feeling a little better afterwards. She shut the book and got up, feeling her joints pop as she did. School today was not going to be fun. "I looked through all sorts of books, but I couldn't really find what I was looking for. I found some things that sounded a little close, but whenever I read into them deeper, it turned out that they didn't quite fit what I was looking for after all." She groaned. "Not exactly the most promising of starts."

"What are you looking for?" Talia asked, strolling across the room to the coffee maker, tossing out the pot Sam had made some time in the early morning, and making a new one. "Want a cup?"

"I could use a cup." Sam admitted, putting the rather large book she had been reading away where she had found it. "Sorry for the mess, by the way."

"Not a problem." Talia shrugged her shoulders.

"I was looking for some kind of supernatural creature or something, that I don't know... causes deaths?" Sam said, frowning a little. "When I say it out loud that sounds pretty vague, but-" Sam paused, looking over at the shopkeeper with a concerned expression. "Talia? Are you okay?" She asked her.

"Huh?" Talia blinked, shaking her head as she realized she had momentarily dropped her cool expression to one of mild horror. Sam's words seemed to have stirred something within her, but she shook it off after a moment. "Oh yes, I'm fine. Pardon me Sam, continue if you like." She told her.

Sam frowned, pausing to study the twenty eight year old shopkeeper a little. She had gotten along well with Talia Vinson ever since she opened the Skulk and Lurk in Borley five years ago. She was rather pale, as most goths were, and had bright, fiery red hair that she wore in a messy excuse for a french braid most of the time. Her eyes were a deep blue, and had constant bags underneath them, concealed by vast amounts of eyeliner, and Talia was on the rather slender side. She often dressed in a far more refined goth style, all long skirts and elegant blouses- she had mentioned it being called 'Aristocrat Lolita' at least once.

In fact, if it weren't for the large scar that split across her face diagonally, Talia would probably be one of the prettier woman in Borley. It was there though, a mean, furious looking thing that she didn't like to talk about very much, and didn't care very much for people she caught staring at it. She wore her bangs to try and cover it for the most part, but it was impossible to hide all of it.

"Do you maybe know something, Talia?" Sam chanced. "Or have some kind of idea?" She asked her.

"No." Talia shook her head, her expression cool once more. The new pot of coffee made, she poured some into a cup for Sam, and handed it over to her, before making a cup for herself. "I'm sorry I can't help you Sam. But," she said, taking a sip of her coffee, then muttering underneath her breath how the blasted thing had made it too hot again. "...if this is about what I think it's about, you would be best advised to stay _away _from it. Far, far away." She said, her monotone voice not betraying a hint of emotion behind her words.

Sam arched an eyebrow, suddenly convinced that Talia knew something. "Why would you say that?" She asked her.

"Because it seems dangerous." Talia said. "If you're planning on investigating something that leaves death in it's wake, then you need to be prepared for the chance that you'll die." She said simply, glancing up from her cup of coffee. "You're seventeen, Sam. I don't think you're quite ready to be knocking on death's door quite yet."

"You really think it's something that serious?" Sam asked her, grimacing a little. Courting death didn't really sound all that appealing, to be honest.

"I do." Talia told her, giving her a sage nod. She glanced at the wall clock then, frowning a little. "You had better down that coffee quick, you've got school to get to. I'd offer you a ride, but I need to get ready to open shop."

"Ugh, is it that time already?" Sam asked, glancing down at her watch, crinkling her nose. "Can I wash up a little in your bathroom, Talia?" She asked, glancing down at her rather rumpled appearance. At least she kept a spare pair of clothes at school she could change into when she got there, so she wouldn't spend the entire day smelling like yesterday's garbage.

"Sure, go ahead." Talia nodded her head. "My keys though, Sam?" She asked, arching an eyebrow and holding out her hand.

"Oh right, sorry, my bad." Sam said, pulling the keys out from her skirt pocket and passing them over to the woman. "Thanks for that, by the way, Talia. I hope you were able to get back to sleep after I called you." She said.

"Oh, don't worry about it." Talia waved a hand. "Not the first time someone has woken me up in the middle of the night with an urgent phone call, probably not the last. Probably not the strangest either. You get ready for school. Wouldn't want to add another tardy to your record, do you?"

"Probably not." Sam laughed, gulping down the rest of her coffee, before ducking into the Skulk and Lurk's bathroom. Using a paper towel, she washed her face, cleaning up a little bit. After that, she grabbed her things back from the back room, and hurried down the street, yawning as she did so. More than likely she was probably going to end up dozing off during school, and she imagined that her parents weren't happy about her not coming home last night either.

But Sam needed to go to school today, she thought- after all, two people from Borley High had died the previous day, and she needed to be there to see the aftermath. That, and she wanted to talk to the rest of the members of the A-List as well, and see if she couldn't get some more information from them. The rest of the cafeteria staff as well, Sam thought, now that the lunch lady had also turned up dead.

Sam managed to make it before the start of school, allowing her enough time to grab her spare change of clothes from her locker, and slip them on in the bathroom, brushing down her hair a little. Yawning, she headed back out into the hallways to seek out Tucker, who as looking rather sleep deprived himself, drifting off in front of his locker. "Tucker!" She called out, giving him a pat on the back. "Wake up, you're drooling."

"I am not." Tucker said, frowning as he reached a hand up to his mouth, just in case he had been. "Hey Sam. In your spare clothes, huh?" He noted tiredly, glancing at her attire. "I take it you didn't go home last night. Some kind of late night stroke of inspiration?" He asked her.

"The strangest thing happened after you left, Tucker." Sam told him. "I think our killer might be involved with the supernatural- or be the supernatural, at any rate." She said. "Also, I met someone kind of weird."

"Okay, you're going to need to start this story at the beginning." Tucker said, shutting his locker door. "Supernatural? Really Sam? I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm not exactly into that sort of thing- man of science and all. And you're a goth, everyone you know aside from me is weird." He said, rolling his eyes.

Sam laughed at that, shaking her head. "Sure you are Tucker. But hear me out, okay?"

"Shoot." He said, leaning against his locker, letting out a loud yawn, which in turn, caused Sam to yawn.

Shaking it off, she focused on staying awake. "I got hit by this bizarre wave of exhaustion after you left, Tucker. Like there was something draining my energy. Sore shoulders, like there was something on them and cold air like it was the middle of winter, all of that." She told him. "Just when I felt like I couldn't take another step, like I was going to pass out, all of a sudden, someone comes up to me, and I'm fine again. Then he vanished without a trace."

"Un-huh." Tucker arched a skeptical eyebrow, crossing his arms in front of him. "And what did your mystery savior look like?" He asked her.

"I didn't really get a good look at him." Sam said. "Like I said, he vanished pretty quickly." She told him. "I think he had white hair though, and was around our age- maybe a year or so older." She said, then gave her friend a look, placing her hands on her hips. "You don't believe me, do you?" She asked him.

"Oh no, I believe you." Tucker said. "I also believe that lack of sleep has caused you to hallucinate and imagine up white haired pretty boys coming to your rescue. I didn't know you had damsel in distress fantasies, Sam."

"I did not imagine this." Sam said, looking rather cross. "I know what I saw, Tucker. And I don't have damsel in distress fantasies, thank you very much." She rolled her eyes, practically gagging on the words. "Why is that so hard for you to believe? I mean, doesn't it make sense, that there's some kind of supernatural entity out there behind these two deaths?" She asked him.

"More like coincidence." Tucker told her. "Look, there's only been two suicides so far. If there's another one, and I hope there isn't, then _maybe _I'll believe you." He said. "Anyways, speaking of the suicides though, the whole school's in a mess over Paulina. The lunch lady, not so much, as you would expect."

"Naturally, nobody mourns the staff." Sam rolled her eyes. "Well, I've got to talk to the A-List anyways, and there's time before class. Do you have any idea where they are?" She asked.

"Last I heard, they were in the back courtyard." Tucker told her. "You sure that's a good idea though? They're all kind of strung up tight at the moment, not that I can blame them."

"Sooner is better than later. Later and they might forget something." Sam said. "You can go on if you want, Tuck, but this is something I need to do." Waving goodbye, they parted ways, and Sam made for the back courtyard, where she easily found the mourning A-List. It struck her, seeing their faces, makeup and hair less than their usual perfect, that there was something a bit deeper than she had first thought. Especially Star, who looked like she hadn't even bothered with makeup at all this morning, who looked more distraught than anyone. She looked downright inconsolable, and Sam grimaced.

She had always sort of thought that the friendship between Paulina and Star had been fake, but those weren't the kind of tears you could fake. Taking in a deep breath, she gathered up her courage, and headed over towards their table. "Um, hey guys." She said. "Look, I'm just going to be straight out with you because it's the least I can do when you're all in mourning. I think there was something unnatural about Paulina's suicide, and I'm looking into it. It would be really great if you guys could tell me if you've noticed anything unusual about her lately."

"Is this some kind of joke, Manson?" Dash was the first one to speak, standing up and slamming his palms against the table. Sam couldn't help but flinch a little, though she was hardly scared of the jock boy. "Paulina just died, and you're coming around here, snooping around and asking questions? Don't you have any respect for the dead?"

"Cool it, Baxter." Star said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "She just said she wants to help to get to the bottom of this. I don't think she's trying to drag Paulina's name through the mud here."

Dash's shoulders slumped as he realized Star was probably right, sitting back down. "Sorry." He said after a moment. "It's been rough. I really liked her."

"I've heard." Sam said simply. "Look, I'm working on a theory here, and I just need more information. Don't ask me what it is though." She said, holding up her hands. "It's just a theory, and it still might be wrong. I don't want to mislead anyone with it. So let me ask you again- have noticed anything strange around Paulina lately?"

"She was kind of out of it yesterday, wasn't she?" Kwan asked, glancing over at Star.

"Yeah. Like we would call out to her and it took her awhile to notice. It was like that the day before too, just not quite as bad. Like she was gradually losing energy or something." Star said. "I was worried she was going on one of those crash courses diets you keep hearing about so I was going to talk to her father about it yesterday afternoon. When I got to her house though, the only thing I found out was that she had just died. Her father was really torn up about it, you know? He loves Paulina a whole lot, she's his 'precious princess' and all that."

"Losing energy, huh?" Sam asked, writing that down. "Any chance you can go into that in more detail?"

"Well, I think I started to notice it at cheer practice around three days ago." Star said. "But I just thought that maybe she was sick or something. It _was _goulash day after all." She said, to which Sam couldn't help but give a knowing nod. She knew the effects of goulash day well. "Like, she didn't really have energy to do any of the cheers and it just seemed that her heart wasn't in it, you know? She asked to leave early, and Testlaff let her off."

"So the problem started around three days ago?" Sam asked for clarification, jotting that down.

"Yeah. She wasn't eating much either, now that I think about it." Kwan chimed in. "You know, didn't one of the lunch ladies kill herself last night too? I thought I noticed she seemed to be kind of out of it yesterday. She kept giving me everything but the hamburger I was trying to get, like she was on auto pilot or something."

Sam had to bite back a comment about how she was surprised that Kwan even cared about the lunch lady, and instead nodded her head. "So, Paulina too, was she acting like she was on auto pilot?"

"Yeah, especially yesterday." Dash told her. "It was weird. We should have realized something was wrong, I don't know why we didn't." He paused, looking hesitant for a moment. "It's not true what they're saying, right? That she was doing drugs or something? Paulina wouldn't do that."

"I don't think so." Sam said after a moment. "I think the police are going to screen for toxins, and if nothing comes up, then I'm sure the rumors will die down." She said, feeling somewhat awkward trying to reassure the A List crowd of all people. "Is there anything else weird you've noticed lately?"

"Now that you mentioned it, when I was out with Paulina the day before yesterday, we ran into this weird guy." Star said. "I couldn't really see his face well because he was wearing a hood, but he had these really creepy blue eyes, like they were kind of dead or something." She told her. "I just thought he was another weirdo, you know, Paulina and I get," she briefly winced, realizing she was using present tense for someone who was no longer there, "...them all the time. He just sort of stopped her on the street and kind of looked her straight in the eyes. What's weirdest is that Paulina didn't say anything at all! When I went to chase him away, he just sort of walked off without saying anything."

"Yeah, and I saw a weird girl outside of school the other day when Paulina's father was dropping her off." Kwan recalled. "She was watching her go into the school building, and when I looked back, she wasn't there anymore. I didn't get a good look at her either, but I think she was black, with real curly black hair, and wore a long red coat."

Something about the way Star described the boy they had met struck her, and she frowned, pausing in her writing. "Did that boy have white hair, by any chance?"

Star blinked, thinking this over. "You know... I think he did. I thought it was weird because he didn't look much older than us." She told her. "How did you know?"

"I might have seen him once myself, around the lunch lady's house." Sam told them. "That would indicate he has something to do with this."

"You think he's the culprit?" Dash sprung to his feet, clearly enraged, and feeling an intense desire to give the person who had caused all of this a good pounding.

"Whoa, I didn't say that." Sam said, lifting her hands. "I just said he might relate to the case in some way. I can imagine you're feeling frustrated, Dash, but maybe right now is the time for rational thought and not irrational anger." She said lightly. "Look, if any of you see him or the girl in the red coat again, can you please let me know?" She asked them, flipping to a clean page of her notebook, already half regretting what she was about to do, as she scribbled down her cell phone number. "Call me if you do." She told them, ripping off the page and slapping the piece of paper on the table.

"Yeah, we can do that Manson." Star said after a moment, taking the slip of paper. "So what, you and Foley are going to try and solve this yourselves? Isn't that something the police are supposed to be doing?"

"Somehow, I'm under the impression that the police have no idea what they're getting into." Sam said grimly. Before they could ask anymore questions, she gave them a curt nod, and dismissed herself.

A boy with white hair and a girl in a red coat, she thought, frowning to herself. There was no way that they didn't have something to do with all this, but Sam didn't think they were the culprits. Not after the boy had saved her last night. Her musing was broken off by a piercing scream that went through the school building, and she stopped in her tracks, turning to look for the source. "The gymnasium!" She exclaimed, and took off for it. She all but barged her way through the crowd that was already forming outside of it, eyes darting around for the source of the cry.

A pale Mrs. Testlaff was staring with bulging eyes up at the ceiling. Catching Sam's questioning look, she pointed shakily upwards. There, up in the rafters, a person was hanging, very clearly dead. She have been there since before school had started, and nobody had looked up to notice her until now.

"Call the police!" Sam found herself shouting. "And stay out of the area! Nobody comes in!" Out of the corner of her ear, she could hear several students breaking out of their shock to comply. She heard Dash of all people, who had come to investigate the source of the scream, blocking people from coming inside.

Lifting up her camera, Sam zoomed in on the hanging corpse, to get a better look at it. She wondered how she had even gotten up there, then realized that it was possible to climb up the rafters in the stage area that was used for plays and school rally events, that was just off the gym and crawl up to the rafters in the gymnasium proper. And if she didn't miss her guess as to the identity of this corpse, then she had all the reason to know how to do that. She had created a noose out of electrical wires, and then, judging from the odd angle of her neck, had probably jumped.

There was only one student at Borley High that had her hair dyed bright green, after all. The red leather jacket and purple scarf were telling signs. She was a member of the drama club, and a senior, Kitty Combs. People knew her because of the aforementioned bright green hair, and because she was dating a college student by the name of Johnny, who wasn't exactly the kind of guy who was a teacher's pet.

The police arrived in short order, and some of the officers groaned when they saw Sam again. She gave them a sheepish shrug, and listened as Mrs. Testlaff told her story. There wasn't much to tell- a ring had fallen on the floor by her foot, and thinking that strange, she had looked to see where it had come from- and had looked up, straight up at Kitty's corpse.

"Well, I suppose I should thank you for keeping anyone else from barging into the crime scene." One of the officers, clearly the one in charge here, begrudgingly said to Sam. "But unless you know something else, you're just going to get in the way here. Scram, Manson." He told her, turning away before grumbling about how the hell they were going to get her down, and how annoying that there had just been another suicide across town.

"Wait, there's been another?" Sam asked, grabbing his arm.

The officer grumbled again, shrugging off her arm. "If I tell you about it, will you get lost?" He asked her.

"Cross my heart." Sam said quickly.

"Across town, down towards the train tracks, some punk kid parked his motorcycle in front of a moving train. Train driver couldn't stop in time. It's a real mess down there. Still haven't been able to ID the corpse." The officer told her curtly.

"Motorcycle?" Sam asked, an apprehensive feeling creeping up on her. "Did the 'punk kid' have say, pale blonde hair and a trench coat on?"

The officer's startled look gave Sam all the information she needed. "Yeah kid, how did you know?"

"Because that sounds a lot like Johnny, Kitty's college boyfriend." Sam told him, jerking her thumb up towards the corpse to indicate that she was talking about the girl in the rafters. "I don't know his last name though, but if you ask around, you're bound to find someone in the drama club who knows Kitty better than I do."

"Alright, I guess you _do _know something." The officer muttered underneath his breath, clearly not keen on having been helped by a seventeen year old girl. Sam couldn't keep the smirk off of her face, and the officer caught it, shooting her a nasty glare. "You've said your piece, now get out of our crime scene, little missy."

"Fair enough." Sam said, backing out of the gymnasium. She found Tucker waiting for her, who had overhead their conversation. "So," Sam began, quirking an eyebrow, "...do you still think it's coincidence?"

"Alright, you have me convinced something weird is going down here." Tucker said, frowning. "Need to get out of class to investigate the train tracks?"

"I need to get out of class to investigate the train tracks." Sam repeated.

"On it. You best head out now, while everyone's still focused on this." Tucker told her. "Give me a status update in about an hour."

"Will do, Tucker." Sam smiled, before she hurried off.

* * *

"Thank goodness for our reliable public transportation system." Sam said to herself as she peered out from behind the warehouse she was currently hiding behind. Eyes narrowing, she glowered a little as she realized that the place was still crawling with police officers, who would likely never let her anywhere _near_ the scene, and drag her kicking and screaming back to the station once they realized she was skipping school. They had already cleared the body- or what was left of it, as she didn't imagine there was much- off of the tracks before she had gotten there, and allowed the train driver to move along after he gave them his statement and his contact information.

They hadn't moved Johnny's motorcycle from the scene, and despite the fact that it had been broken apart from the impact with the train, Sam could still tell it was his motorcycle. Tucker had mailed her that the time of death that they declared for Kitty was around six thirty that morning, just an hour or so before school had opened it's doors. He looked up the schedule for the commercial train line that ran through Borley's outskirts for her, and got back to her with the information that there was a train was scheduled to run through here at around six forty that morning.

So Johnny and Kitty had more or less died ten minutes apart from each other. She added that to her growing collection of notes, before tucking away the notepad. Pulling her camera from around her neck, she turned on the 'zoom' function, to get a better look at the officers.

"You sure like showing up around crime scenes. This a hobby of yours or something?" A woman's voice spoke up, and it caused Sam to jump, eyes going wide as she spun around to see who it was. "Whoa there, I didn't mean to scare you." She said, laughing a little. "Excitable, aren't you?"

Standing in front of Sam was a black girl who looked to be about a year or so older than her, with a curly mass of black hair, bangs held back by an orange bandana, who had green eyes and wore a long red coat. Some of the clothes she wore looked a little worn out, her boots scuffed and her pants faded and torn, like they had been well worn. Sam instantly recognized her as the girl that Kwan had mentioned seeing, the one who had watched Paulina go into school yesterday.

"And you've been see watching the movements of one of the suicide victims." Sam said carefully, slowly reaching for her cell phone in her pocket, ready to dial the panic button that Tucker had placed on it at any time.

"Easy now." Valerie lifted her hands, smiling at her. "I'm not here to hurt you, Samantha." She said. "I did some research of my own." She quirked a smile when Sam raised a brow at the fact that she knew her name.

"Then what are you here for? I doubt it's just a pleasant chat." Sam said. "And it's _Sam_, not Samantha."

"Alright, Sam." Valerie said. "You can call me Red." She told the younger girl. "I'm here to tell you that if you value your life, you shouldn't be sticking your nose into this." She said directly, her voice low, her tone warning. "I know your type, always sticking your nose where it doesn't belong, thinking that you can do something to help. But it always backfires on them, for some worse than others. And it might take your little friend, Tucker, with it."

"Are you threatening me?" Sam asked, eyes narrowing. "Because there are police officers just around the corner I could call for help."

"I'm not threatening you at all." Valerie told her. "I'm just giving you a warning." She quirked a small grin. "Also, I think the police are a little bit tied up at the moment."

Against her better judgement, Sam turned her gaze from the older teenager, glancing back towards the train tracks. She sucked in her breath when she did, police officers slumped down as if they were asleep. Standing in the middle of them was a young man with bushy snow white hair, whose back was turned to her. His clothes had the same worn out look to them than 'Red's' did, a scruffy looking jacket and a pair of worn out tennis shoes, jeans with any number of holes in them. He was holding something in his hands, which appeared to her to be a high tech thermos of some kind. For a brief second, she saw a blue light emit from it, before he closed it, and glanced back towards his partner, giving her a thumbs up, which she returned.

"Who are you people?" Sam asked, looking back at Valerie. "What is it that you're doing here?"

"I can't answer that." Valerie said, shrugging her shoulders, keeping her cool. "But this isn't the first time this string of incidents has occurred. And it's not the first time that a hot-headed police detective, or a journalist, or a high school girl who fancies herself a bit of both has gotten themselves involved in it. And it's never ended well."

"Not the first time?" Sam found herself asking, but Valerie merely gave her a small smile, clearly not going to say anything further on the subject. "People are _dying_, though, and you just want me not to do anything? Just to sit by when I know that something is wrong?"

"Exactly." Valerie told her, putting a hand on her shoulder, giving it a small squeeze. "That's our job."

With that, Valerie joined her partner, who paused to look back towards Sam. Without thinking, Sam snapped a photo the moment he turned his gaze away from her. There was a brief flash, and then both of them were gone without a trace.

The sight left Sam speechless, needles to say. What had she just witnessed, and who were those people? What the hell were they doing, and how had they put all of those police officers to sleep? Officers who were, by the way, now waking up. Sam quickly realized that they would be looking for the reason that they had all suddenly fainted in short order, and made the wise decision to scram.

And what did Red mean by that this wasn't the first time this had all happened? Burning with a strong sense of curiosity, Sam decided to do the exact opposite of what she had been warned against doing, and decided that this called for a deeper investigation.

* * *

"Clean up the mess, Phantom?" Valerie asked lightly, as the two flew over town on her hover board, hidden from sight due to Phantom's powers. Their next destination was Borley High School, where another suicide had taken place, apparently, the girlfriend of the boy at the tracks. Two for the price of one, Umbra must have gotten the both of them at the same time from how close their deaths were to each other.

"Not a single wraith left." Phantom told her, shaking the Thermos a bit. It was something that they had taken from Fenton Works before they had left town, alongside Valerie's hover board. It was designed to trap and catch ghosts, and worked on wraiths just as well- leftover bits of spectral energy and negative thoughts that came out after a sudden, unexpected, and usually violent death. Something about the victims crossing paths with Umbra only made the usual wraiths that they had dealt with in the course of their journey all the worse.

"Good to hear." Valerie grinned. "I don't think that Sam girl is going to listen to my warning though. She had that look in her eyes. Same one we did back then."

"Before we knew any better. Maybe you should have tried to scare her off with the truth." Phantom remarked dryly, sitting on the back of Valerie's hover board, legs hanging off from the side. "It's worked for others."

"Not for this one, I don't think. We'll just have to keep our eyes peeled." Valerie told him. "For her and her little friend. Umbra's like to go after the friend before he goes after the girl, to 'send her a warning'."

"Some warning, he'll try to kill her anyways right after that." Phantom rolled his eyes. "As hypocritical as it sounds, I hate the nosy types the most."

"Hey, if we hadn't been nosy, there might have never been anyone to stand in Umbra's way." Valerie shrugged her shoulders. "I don't think Umbra ever expected someone like you to come about, Phantom."

"You mean a half-ghost freak?" He asked, looking rather glum.

"I didn't mean it like that." Valerie said, glancing back towards him. "You know I didn't, Danny."

Phantom sighed. "I know you didn't, Val, it's just... I just can't get used to it." He told her. "I hate not being _normal_. Some days I can't help but wonder if it would have been better if I had actually died there."

Valerie brought the hover board to a grinding halt, and turned around, promptly smacking her friend upside the head. "Do _not _ever say anything like that again, Danny! There is nobody who wants you gone, least of all me! There's nothing wrong with you, Fenton, and I won't stand for that kind of crap coming from you. _I _want you here, and _I _need you here- doesn't that count for anything at all?"

Phantom flinched, rubbing his cheek. "Sorry Valerie." He said after a moment. "I wasn't really thinking at all when I said that. I didn't mean it." He said after a moment, frowning tightly.

Valerie heaved a sigh. "I know. I'm sorry too, Danny." She said after a moment. "I lost my temper for a second there."

"No, it's fine." Phantom laughed. "At least it tells me that you care." He told her, giving her a small grin. "I like that about you, you know. You don't hesitate to say what you're thinking. It's a good trait."

"Not everyone seems to think so." Valerie said dryly, kicking the hover board into gear again, continuing on their journey towards Borley High School, which was now in sight.

"Yeah well, everyone else sucks." Phantom joked. "You shouldn't listen to them, Valerie. You're doing great things here."

"So are you, Ghost Boy." Valerie reminded him. "I wouldn't be half as good at this without you around as my partner." She told him. "I couldn't ask for a better one, and I wouldn't change a single thing about you. Ghost powers or no ghost powers." She told him.

"Thanks." Phantom said after a moment, rubbing the back of his neck, face a light shade of red. "That means a lot, Valerie, it really does."

"Anytime." Valerie told him, setting down on the school roof. As Phantom disembarked, and turned them both visible again, Valerie gave him a pat on the back, which caused him to stumble a little from the strength put into it. "Good luck down there, Ghost Boy. Go get 'em."

"I will!" Phantom told her, giving her a mock salute, before he phased turned invisible, and phased through the school roof.

* * *

"Aren't you supposed to be in school?" Talia asked, peering down at the girl who had holed herself up in the back room of the Skulk and Lurk once again. "It's barely even afternoon."

"I did _technically _go to school." Sam told her. "I just didn't stay there very long." She laughed a little, adjusting the laptop that she had sneaked into her house to grab in her lap so that she could sit more comfortably.

"Alright, but don't blame me when your parents hear about this." Talia sighed, shrugging her shoulders as she headed back towards the front of the store.

"Don't worry, Tucker's covering for me!" Sam called out after her. What that 'Red' girl had told her had sparked Sam's interest, that this was not the first time these series of incidents had happened. A string of irrational suicides, especially when most of them were so attention grabbing, was not something that would go unnoticed and unreported, Sam thought, so she was bound to run into articles about them if she looked for them. Perhaps in doing so, she could uncover the truth behind the two mysterious strangers that she had met.

After all, Sam highly doubted that girl's name was _actually _Red. It was clearly an alias of some sorts.

"Alright, Internet search gods, don't fail me now." Sam said, typing away. Sorting through the results that she got was not easy, and most of it seemed to be rubbish, nothing more than urban legend sites and other shady, unhelpful sights. Halfway in, however, she discovered a news article that looked promising, and clicked on it. It was for a town in Arkansas, a small town by the name of Winstonville, a place she had never heard of. The article was for the local paper, and described the sudden death of a journalist who lived there who was looking into a mysterious string of suicides.

_And it's not the first time that a hot-headed police detective, or a journalist, or a high school girl who fancies herself a bit of both has gotten themselves involved in it. And it's never ended well._

Sam felt her blood freeze as she browsed the article, Red's words coming back to her. For a brief second, she wondered if this was really something that she shouldn't be getting involved in, something that was too dangerous for her to be getting all twisted up in. She pushed this thought aside, the idea that there were people out there dying outweighing the possible risk she could be taking herself. Sam was not the sort of person who would just sit around and do nothing in the face of danger.

_The reporter, identity withheld, left behind a twin sister, age twenty two. She was investigating a string of mysterious suicides in Winstonville, Arkansas, that held the town in a grip of horror for five days while multiple deaths occurred. The names and ages of the deceased, in chronological order are as follows:_

_Anya Bradford (21), sleeping pill overdose_

_Quincy Black (18), hanging_

_Nathaniel Summers (23), hanging_

_Bradley Peters (17), jumped from water tower_

_Amy Peters (19), jumped from water tower_

_Andrew Meyers (10), drowned_

_Angel Walsh (22), car crash_

_Deborah Wade (53), death by carbon monoxide_

_Erick Taylor (30), cut wrists_

_Beatrice Day (42), sleeping pill overdose_

_Summer Brooks (19), hanging_

_name withheld (22), stabbed in her home_

_Police are still investigating this strange rash of suicides, but have concluded that the reporter was likely murdered. The hunt is still on for the culprit, and Winstonville has been locked down in response to the sudden outbreak of deaths._

Checking the date on the article, Sam saw that it was from 2006, six years ago, and was dated in October of that year. Eleven suicides and a murder, she thought, tapping her fingers against her laptop. There was no way that was at all normal. Bookmaking the article, she turned back to her search, and turned up more articles of the same nature, some describing the rash of deaths, turning up a few obituaries in the process. Not all of them were in America, she noted, although the most recent ones all were- before that, there had been an 'outbreak' in various places in Canada, prior to that, it had been in Greenland.

After what turned to be several hours of searching, Sam turned up another article that caught her interest, one from 2008. It was from a local news paper in a town called Amity Park in Illinois. She'd never heard of the place either, but something about the article caught her eye. It read like many of the others she had found, describing the series of deaths and the strange happenings in the city. She paused when she came to the list though, finding that there was something there that hadn't been in all of the others.

_Margaret Reeds (20), drowned_

_Penelope Spencer (33), gunshot_

_Bertrand Morgan (56), gunshot_

_Damon Gray (43), struck by a car_

_Ember McClain (14), smoke inhalation_

_Juniper Bell (19), hanging_

_Seth Erickson (15), jumped from school roof_

_Valerie Gray (14) missing_

_Daniel Fenton (14) missing_

_There_. That was it, the last two on the list, Sam thought. She had read a lot of victim lists in the past few hours, but these were the only two that had been declared as missing. If they had both been fourteen in 2008, then they must have been around eighteen now, she thought, which would make them a year older than her. Pursuing through the article, she discovered another one connected to it, which was tilted '_Family of Missing Teen Launches Search for Son and Family Friend_'.

Clicking on it, Sam was greeted by two missing posters, and immediately recognized the face on one of them. 'Valerie Gray' as it turned out, was Red, and the picture that stared back at her was of a happy looking young girl, but with that same distinct mass of curly black hair, and that orange bandana. The other one was a little harder to recognize, that of a black haired boy with blue colored eyes, smiling sheepishly at the camera. But upon a closer look, he had the same facial structure as the white haired boy, although there clearly had been a drastic change between the two of them.

Scrolling down, she decided it would be best if she read the article.

_Jack and Madeline Fenton, parents of three young children, were distraught when a sudden death took the father of one of their children's best friends from them. A day later, another friend of the family, fourteen year old Ember McClain was killed in a fire she is now believed to have started. Tragedy has struck once more for the Fenton family, as their middle child, and only son, fourteen year old Daniel Fenton along with his best friend, also fourteen, Valerie Gray, went missing early this July._

_Now they are imploring that everyone and anyone keep their eyes open for the two missing children. They were taking steps to ensure that Valerie Gray, left orphaned after the death of her father, was to be left in their care when she vanished, alongside her son. Before vanishing, it was believed that they were looking into the sudden deaths of Valerie's father, and their best friend, Ember._

Sam skimmed the rest of the article, at the end, stumbling upon a link to a website. Clicking on it showed her the same posters again, but with more detailed information about the two missing teens, which Sam assumed had been written by someone from the Fenton family. Scanning over the information, Sam stumbled on an e-mail address that belonged to a 'Jasmine Fenton', which she assumed must have been one of Danny's two sisters that had been mentioned in the article.

Sam clicked on it, bringing up her e-mail program. For a few minutes, she just stared at the blank e-mail, wondering if this was really the right thing to do. But she had to know more, and she thought that if she could do that and reunite a grieving family at the same time, then it was a win-win situation, right?

_Hello there. Through various circumstances, I had stumbled upon your website. My name is Sam Manson, and I come from the town of Borley, Wisconsin. I don't want to falsely get your hopes up, but I have very recently, as of a few hours ago, met someone I believe to be the missing Valerie Gray. I can assure you that she appears to be in good health, and I believe she is together with the likewise missing Daniel Fenton, but I am hesitant to fully confirm this as fact. Please contact me back if you have any more questions._

Sam hit 'send' before she lost her nerve, and watched as the e-mail went off without a hitch. She checked back to make sure it hadn't bounced, that the e-mail hadn't changed, but thankfully, it still seemed to work. She decided against the idea of mentioning the fact that Borley was now experiencing it's own string of strange suicides, thinking that it might not be wise.

* * *

It was an e-mail that she thought she would never get.

Sometimes, things showed up in her inbox, it was true, but none of them were ever what she wanted to see.

But this- _this _looked more than a little promising.

After four years, Jazz had been starting to give up hope of every finding Danny and Valerie. They had gone missing during such a horrible series of events, that some people back home in Amity Park assumed that they were dead, and nobody had found their bodies yet. But the Fenton family refused to admit that, and Jazz refused to admit it most of all. No, they were out there, somewhere, alive. She was sure of it.

So even though she had gone off to college, away from Amity Park, Jazz had never stopped looking for them. She had always dreamed of one day running across them in the street, and the tearful reunion that would surely follow.

And while this wasn't quite what she had imagined, this e-mail from this Sam Manson fellow, it was the best lead she had gotten in years, and like hell she wasn't going to pursue it.

"Borley, Wisconsin, huh?" Jazz said. "Looks like I'll be needing to take off some time from school, then."


	3. Missing People

Author's Note: Sorry for the wait! Chapter Three is here at last, and the ball gets rolling! This is a pretty fun story to write, but it's always fun to apply mystery elements to Danny Phantom- at least, in my experience it is. Stay tuned, my followers, for my next update will bring a new story I've been fiddling around with for awhile!

Danny Phantom does not belong to me, however, Umbra and Talia do. Thank you for reading, as always! Every one of you is great!

* * *

Dark Angel

Chapter Three: Missing People

Jazz Fenton had just gotten the news that she had been waiting for, for the past four years, and she found herself unable to decide how to handle it. One thing was for sure- she needed to get back in touch with this 'Sam Manson' person, whoever they might be. But what she didn't know, was whether or not she should leak this information to her parents yet.

As reliable as the e-mail had sounded, it could still be someone's idea of a sick joke, and she didn't want to get her parents hopes up just yet. They had been close to Danny one time before, and she'd seen the crushed expressions on her parents faces when they all learned that they had just missed him.

She didn't want to see that, ever again.

So Jazz decided that until she had her little brother in her sights, she wouldn't say anything to them- or to Danielle. It hurt her to do so, but she thought that it was for the best. If the lead turned up to be a dead end, she would keep it to herself, and then the only person who would have to be disappointed would only be her.

She could more than deal with the disappointment.

That said, it wasn't like it didn't get to her. She could feel it weighing down on her everyday another month passed without word. Every time someone sent her a joke e-mail, and she had to restrain herself from pounding on her keys and pumping out an angry, rage-filled response. It was hard to deal with, harder than anything she had ever experienced.

It wasn't just Danny she was worried about either, it was Valerie, his friend as well. She knew that the both of them went through hard experiences before they vanished- but Valerie had the harder to the two. Not only did her best friend kill herself in such a strange way, but so did her father.

Jazz could never understand what had happened during that time period. It wasn't just Ember or Valerie's father, but there were other people as well. None of them seemed like they were the type of person to commit suicide, nor did they have any apparent reason to. There were no major sources of stress in their lives, no major disappointments, no history of mental illness of any kind- one of them had even been a psychologist, she recalled. And here Jazz was, in college, studying the very thing, and she was no closer to an answer than she had been four years ago.

Frankly, it was maddening.

She didn't like what she couldn't explain, and she couldn't explain what had happened those four years ago. It was just _unnatural_.

And knowing that Danny and Valerie had vanished afterwards only caused Jazz to worry all the more. They had left a note, assuring them that they were fine, and that they didn't need to worry about them or look for them- but of course they did! Of course they worried, and of course they looked, but it was as if the pair had gone well and truly to the Earth, because for the past four years, they hadn't found even a trace of them.

And now, finally, here was the clue she had been looking for.

"Borley, huh." Jazz said out loud, her excitement subduing itself a little, causing her to reel herself back in a little, and think about exactly what she would need to do in order to get there. She needed to take some time off from college, that much was clear, and she would do that as soon as she finished arranging her travel plans. She had a car, and it didn't appear that Borley was so far away that she couldn't drive there in day. If she booked a plane ticket, then she would just have to worry about renting a car while she was there, in addition to finding a hotel room, and that seemed like far too much trouble when she would have other things on her mind.

"Ah, that's right." Jazz said, opening her e-mail program back up. "I should probably send an e-mail back to this Sam person and let her know I'm planning to come down there. We should probably meet."

Bringing up Sam's e-mail, Jazz began to compose a response.

_Thank you for your e-mail. As you have probably gathered from the website, I am Jazz Fenton, the older sister of the missing Daniel Fenton. Thank you for contacting me about possibly sighting Valerie and Danny! This is wonderful news, and I can't thank you enough for contacting me about this. I will be coming to Borley tomorrow, and would like to meet up with you in person to discuss what you've seen._

_If you could determine a meeting place, I should be able to find it._

_Thank You, Jazz Fenton._

Sending off the e-mail, Jazz gave Sam's another read through. She frowned a little, pausing as she hovered her mouse over where she mentioned Danny. "I wonder why she's somewhat hesitant to confirm that Danny's with her though?" She frowned. "I guess she just didn't get a clear view of him."

Satisfied with that answer, Jazz set about making her travel arrangements, awaiting a reply from this Sam.

* * *

"So you're meeting someone you met off the Internet?" Tucker gave his friend a skeptical look. "I should probably be the last person to give you a lecture about Internet safety, but are you really sure that's such a good idea?"

"It'll be fine Tucker." Sam said. They were seated in front of the Skulk and Lurk, sitting on the curb and waiting for this Jazz girl to arrive. "It's not like I'm meeting up with some random guy from a chat room or something. This is the older sister of that boy I was telling you about. The one who I keep seeing around crime scenes? I'm telling you Tucker, they really did vanish yesterday."

"I don't know Sam." Tucker frowned. "I think you might be working too hard, and just saw things."

"Oh no, I know what I saw." Sam said, frowning at Tucker. "There's something weird about that white haired kid, and there's something weird about this case. Otherwise, how do you explain this photo I took?" She asked him, setting a photograph in front of him. She had developed it last night, sneaking into the school so she could use the darkroom to do so.

"That it's not exactly your best work?" Tucker asked, looking it over. In the photo was a girl a year older than them, wearing a worn and faded red coat, her face barely in view. She was perfectly clear, but her companion, not so much. If anything he was kind of faded and blurry, although Tucker could make out white hair. "Not sure how you managed to get the blur on just one of them though. Are you sure you didn't just screw up in the darkroom?"

"Screwing up in the darkroom wouldn't explain the fact that he's partially transparent." Sam said, taking the photo back and tucking it back in her bag. "You can see the train tracks right through him! Come on Tucker, you have to admit, something strange is going on her. Most likely supernatural. Even Talia thinks so!"

Tucker rolled his eyes. "Look, not to knock on Talia, but I'm not sure all of her screws are completely tightened in. Of course she probably thinks it's demons or something."

"I don't think it's demons, Tuck, I think it's ghosts." Sam said. "Or spirits. Something along that line at least."

"Un-huh." Tucker gave her a long look. "And what exactly do you expect to gain by meeting this Jazz Fenton anyways?" He asked.

"Like I told you, I found her website while browsing for articles about similar cases. And there's a lot of them Tucker. All around the country, and other countries, and not only just recent cases! This has been going on for a long, long time now. Eerie, unexplained cases of suicide, all within a short time period of each other. You can't possibly tell me that that's a coincidence."

"Well, I'll admit, that does seem strange." Tucker frowned. "And? What do these Valerie Gray and Daniel Fenton people have to do with it?"

"They went missing after a chain of suicides in a town called Amity Park, four years ago. I'm pretty sure the girl in the red coat is the missing Valerie Gray. I'm one hundred percent positive it's her in fact. And that has to be Daniel Fenton with her, even if he doesn't look exactly the same as his missing poster."

"I take it you don't think they're behind the suicides." Tucker mused. "But connected somehow. And the A-List said they saw them hanging around Paulina in her final days?"

"Yeah, like they were keeping watch on her." Sam told him, nodding her head. "This Jazz Fenton person might have some more answers to give us. And maybe I can provide her some piece of mind while I'm at it."

"Are you going to tell the sister you think her little brother is mixed up in this business?" Tucker asked her. "You are, aren't you? That's probably not going to give her as much piece of mind as you seem to expect that it will." He pointed out.

"True, but I need answers." She said. "And people are still dying, Tucker. Didn't you read the newspaper? They found another this morning, floating in the river. Everyone's in an uproar about it."

"No, I heard." He frowned. "It's true that I can't deny that something strange is happening here, Sam. I'm just not so ready to accept a supernatural explanation for everything though. I am, after all, a man of technology and science."

"You sound like Mr. Technus." Sam observed, looking amused.

"Oh come on, I do not!" He protested. "I don't run around declaring my daily agenda to everyone in sight! I mean who does that anyways?"

"Hold that thought Tuck." Sam said, noticing someone coming down the street. She was looking at a piece of paper, acting as if she was following directions. Sam stood up, brushing dirt off her skirt, before she headed up to her. "Jazz Fenton?" She asked.

Jazz peered up from the piece of paper, looking at the raven haired girl in front of her. "Sam Manson?" She asked, hesitantly. She had been expecting a boy, from the name. She supposed it must have been a nickname.

"That's me!" She said, then motioned towards Tucker. "And this is my good friend and associate, Tucker Foley."

"I see." Jazz smiled, tucking away the paper, then offered her hand. "It's nice to meet the both of you." She nodded at Tucker as he got up to greet her as well.

"Nice to meet you as well." Sam said, shaking her hand. "Now I'm sure you want to get straight to business, so why don't we go inside?" She asked.

"Sure, that would be great." Jazz nodded her head, letting herself be lead inside the Skulk and Lurk by Sam and Tucker. This was the first time she had ever been in one of these places, she thought- goth bookstores sure had a different vibe to them than regular bookstores.

"You guys can go ahead and use the back, just don't make a mess." Talia said, glancing up. She gave Jazz a small smile, before she went back to taking care of the customer in front of her, trying fruitlessly to explain what 'buy one, get one' free was to him, and looking as if she was about ready to tear out her hair.

Stepping into the back of the Skulk and Lurk, Sam found that Talia had already set up a small table and chairs for them, and took a seat. Tucker and Jazz quickly joined her, and Sam smiled at Jazz. "First things first, I do have a photograph." She said, pulling out the aforementioned item. "I'm afraid it's not exactly the best for identifying features, which I apologize for."

"No, that's quite alright." Jazz said, taking the photograph. It was like the wind had been knocked out of her when she did so, as she found herself staring back at Valerie Gray. She was older, that much was true, and looking rougher around the edges than Jazz remembered, but it was unmistakably Valerie Gray. There was no way she could confuse the girl who showed up at her house almost ever single day since she was four for anyone else.

As for the other person in the picture... the quality was strangely bad, and Jazz narrowed her eyes, swearing that she could almost see straight through him. His white hair didn't strike a bell, but somehow, in her bones, she knew who this person was. "That's definitely Valerie Gray." She said after a moment, realizing that Sam was waiting on some kind of response. "And if I'm not mistaken, I would even say that's my little brother Danny. The white hair is new though."

"That's why I was hesitant to be sure it was him." Sam said, giving her a small chuckle. "I see, so it's as I thought then." Opening up her bag, she pulled out several newspapers, and set them in front of Jazz. "I hate to do this to you Jazz, but I need you to look at these headlines and tell me if they give you deja vu in any way."

"Deja vu?" Jazz blinked, before she turned to the newspapers, not understanding what she meant.

And then she saw them, and she could feel her heart start to race.

_Mysterious Suicide of Borley High Cheer Queen Leaves Police Baffled._

_Local Lunch Lady Leaves Behind Husband, Child, after Hanging herself._

_Two Deaths Within Ten Minutes, Double Suicide of Local Couple._

_Man Found Drowned in River, Believed Suicide._

Sam didn't even have to ask to know what Jazz was thinking. From the look of fear on her face, she already knew. She was no doubt having flashbacks to similar incidents happening in her own hometown.

"Here too?" Jazz said finally, unable to keep herself from shaking, vivid memories returning to her.

_"Valerie, honey, you... have a phone call." Her mother hesitantly told the girl, interrupting her study session with Danny and Jazz. They looked up in curiosity, exchanging looks with each other as Valerie got up to answer the phone. They couldn't recall a time when their mother had looked so shaken._

_Something was wrong._

_"Hello?" Valerie took the phone. "Yes, this is she. Yes, that's right." She said, frowning a little. Her eyes went wide then, and the phone dropped from her hand, color draining from her face. It was all Maddie could do to keep her from falling over, supporting her back._

_"Valerie?" Danny got to his feet, hurrying over to see her. "What's wrong? What happened?"_

_"...my father is dead."_

"It can't possibly happen here _too_." Jazz stammered, eyes racing frantically across the newspaper articles, not wanting to believe what she was reading.

_The sound of sirens filled the air, as firefighters worked to put out the violent fire that was no raging in the McClain household. Her mother and father had been wheeled out into waiting ambulances already, which had rushed away. It was all Jazz could do to hold Danny back, keep him from running into the fire after the rescue workers._

_"She's still in there Jazz, let me go!" He cried, pleading with her, his blue eyes desperate._

_"You can't!" Jazz told him, her heart heavy in her chest. "If you go in there, you might die! I'm sure the firefighters will get Ember out." Even as she said this, she couldn't help but let her eyes drift to the roaring fire before them, wondering if it was possible Ember was even still alive in there. And to think, just yesterday, that had happened to Valerie's father, and now..._

_The firefighters didn't find Ember in time. By the time they had found her body, she had already suffocated on smoke. She had locked herself in closet, clutching a box of matches in one hand, and her guitar spread out in her lap, other hand gently resting on it._

"Jazz!" Sam's cry snapped her out of her memories, and she looked up, realizing that she wasn't back on that day, and didn't have to watch her brother fall to knees a second time, didn't have to watch the faces of Ember's parents as they learned that she hadn't made it, and that she had most likely started the fire herself.

"I'm sorry." Jazz said, placing a hand on her forehead, taking in and letting out a deep breath. "It's just that... similar cases happened in my home town of Amity Park." She told them.

"I know." Sam confessed. "That's part two of why I called you here, Jazz." She confessed. "The same thing is happening in our town now, and it's not just us. This has happened before." She hesitated a bit now, placing a hand on top of Jazz's, realizing that it was still shaking a little. "And we think your brother and his friend have some idea of what's going on."

Jazz's instinctive reaction was the leap to her brother's defense, to claim that he had nothing to do with these deaths, before she quickly realized that Sam wasn't trying to pin the deaths on Danny, just that she was saying that he knew something about them. And the more Jazz thought about it, the more right Sam became. After all, he and Valerie had vanished after the deaths of Mister Gray and Ember, and they had shown up here, where a fresh chain of deaths had now begun.

"What makes you think that?" Jazz asked, managing to get a grip on herself.

"I've seen them hanging around twice now around crime scenes." Sam told her. "And two people I know spotted them watching Paulina, the first girl who died, shortly before her death."

"That, and Valerie pretty much confirmed it for me in person. Of course, she called herself 'Red' then." Sam said.

Jazz jolted up. "You've spoken with them in person?!" She shouted. "How's Danny? Is he okay, does he look like he's eating well, and what about Valerie, is she okay, how does she look? Healthy, good, eating?" She asked, gripping Sam's shoulders.

"Whoa, whoa." Sam weaseled her way out of Jazz's vice grip. "Tone it down there Jazz. I just spoke with Valerie, not Danny. And yes, she looked fine, they both looked fine, as far as I could tell." She assured her. Jazz let out a sigh of relief, slumping back down in her chair, now looking properly sheepish about her outburst.

"Sorry about that, I just..." Jazz started, but Sam cut her off, shaking her head.

"No, it's okay. If Tucker went missing, I would probably react the same way in your situation." She assured her. Tucker, meanwhile, looked pleased to know that Sam cared so much, and then turned to Jazz.

"So what you're saying is, that in Amity Park, there were also unexplained suicides?" He asked her.

"That's right." Jazz nodded her head, then turned back towards Sam. "What exactly did Valerie tell you?"

"She told me that they were handling it and that I should keep my nose out of it if I wanted to live." Sam stated. "I don't think she was threatening me per se, but she was issuing a warning. They did manage to make a bunch of police officers fall asleep though, for a few minutes." She frowned then, wondering if she should tell Jazz this, or if she would think she was crazy. "And then they just kind of vanished."

"You mean, you lost track of them?" Jazz asked for clarification.

"No, I mean they just vanished." Sam told her. "They were there one second, and then gone the next."

Jazz frowned at this, leaning back in her chair. For some reason, her father's talk of ghosts was the first thing that sprang to her mind, but she brushed it away. Ghosts weren't real, and nothing her parents had ever done had proved to Jazz that they existed. Ghosts weren't real, so they couldn't possibly have anything to do with this. There was most likely a scientific explanation for what Sam had witnessed- and she didn't doubt what Sam had seen, as she didn't think the girl was lying to her about anything.

It was true that before Danny and Valerie had vanished, some of the tech from her parent's lab had been stolen. Jazz had always suspected that perhaps they had taken it with them, but she could never figure out why. Perhaps it was related to what, according to Sam, they were now knee deep into. Considering the personalities of her brother and her friend, it wasn't unlikely that they would try to avenge the wrongful death of a parent and a friend.

Even Jazz felt that way, a little. Probably, so did the rest of her family. Ember and Valerie's father, Damon, had been around them so much that they felt as if they were a part of the family as well. The thought that they would kill themselves was simply unthinkable to her.

But what could possibly cause otherwise healthy people to commit suicide? Some kind of virus? No, she thought, if it was a virus, there were too many things that didn't add up. A virus would have had more causalities, and she'd never heard of such a thing before.

"I see." Jazz said at long last, breaking the awkward silence that had risen. "It's true that before they vanished, they most likely stole some technology from my parent's lab. It's not impossible that what Sam witnessed has something to do with that."

"Hah!" Tucker couldn't help but laugh, giving his friend a pointed look. "See, I told you there was nothing supernatural about this."

Sam looked back at him, simply raising a brow, before she looked back at Jazz. "Out of curiosity, what did your parents do that involved them owning a lab?"

A faint bit of color rose to Jazz's cheeks. "Ah, they were inventors." She told them, chuckling a little, and hoping that Sam wouldn't push further. Her parents occupation was too embarrassing to admit!

"Of what?" Sam asked, the question that Jazz feared hearing.

"...anti-ghost weaponry." Jazz said after a moment, glancing at her feet. "They develop anti-ghost weaponry."

"Nothing supernatural, huh?" Sam glanced over at Tucker, a smug look on her face.

"Wait, so you're saying your parents are basically ghost hunters?" Tucker asked, looking incredulously at Jazz.

"Pretty much." She admitted, spreading her hands in front of her. "It's exactly as ridiculous as it sounds. People usually just laugh about it or make the exact same two Ghostbusters jokes that everyone else does."

"Are you planning to stay in town, Jazz?" Sam asked, changing the subject, sensing that Jazz was getting flustered. "In that case, why don't we exchange cell phone numbers? We'll both keep our eyes out for any signs of Danny or Valerie."

"That would be great." Jazz smiled, grateful not only for the offer, but the change of subject. She pulled out her cell phone, quickly exchanging information with the two teens. "I'll let you know if I turn anything up as well. You two have been most helpful, and I'm really grateful." She said, nodding her head.

"No problem." Sam gave her a smile. "I'm always glad to be of help."

* * *

"That is definitely not good." Valerie remarked from her perch on the building across from the Skulk and Lurk. Phantom had tasked her with keeping tabs on Sam while he tried to track down Umbra- tomorrow they would switch. It was probably the best thing she was on this duty today, because she wasn't sure how he would react to seeing his older sister here. And that was, without a mistake, Jazz Fenton.

But what was she doing here?

It wasn't a question that lingered in her mind for long. Sam must have been investigating the suicides again, and had stumbled upon a similar event happening in Amity Park. She probably followed the thread until she found the missing persons website that she knew Jazz had set up. Valerie would have figured a way to take it down, however, she knew nothing about computers. There was also the fact that she wasn't sure if that would be the right move- a concentrated effort to suppress information about their disappearance might lead to the Fenton family drawing the wrong conclusions about it. Right now, they thought they were runaways, but if something like that happened, well, that thought might change.

"How annoying." Valerie frowned, clicking her tongue. And it would almost certainly hamper their investigations in the area, especially if Jazz called in her parents.

She waited in the shadows of the building until Jazz left the goth bookstore. With no good way of following her, she would have to settle for simply informing Phantom that his sister was here- he needed to know after all, and they needed to come to some kind of decision about this.

Once the coast was clear, she pulled out her walkie talkie, tapping into Phantom's line. "Red to Ghost Boy, I repeat this is Red to Ghost Boy, over." She spoke into it, frowning a little as she got static back at first. Was she out of range already? She grumbled, about to shake the faulty thing, before she heard Phantom's voice back over it.

"Red, this is Ghost Boy, over." Phantom response. "What's up? You sounds a bit a rattled. Is everything okay over there?"

"In terms of spectral activity, everything is a-okay." Valerie responded. "However, another complication has arose."

"Really? What is that girl getting herself involved in now?" Phantom asked, frowning a little. This Sam girl sure was stubborn! Not the type to take too well to warnings, he guessed. What a pain.

"Your sister." Valerie said. "One way or another, she managed to put two and two together, and Jazz is here now. She just left a place called Skulk and Lurk, some kind of goth bookstore from the looks of it, and is heading south and Whitehall Street." She frowned, hearing silence on the other end of the line. "Phantom, you still there? Please respond."

"I'm here." Phantom said after a minute. "Are you sure it's Jazz, Valerie?" He asked back. His tone, distorted by the walkie talkie's fuzz as it was, told Valerie everything she needed to know.

"Sure as the day is long." Valerie responded back.

"That girl is really annoying." Phantom grumbled after a moment. "I'm coming to meet you Valerie. This is something we need to discuss in person."

"Roger." Valerie said. "I'll maintain my current position."

* * *

True to his word, Phantom was there before long, and just as Valerie predicted, he looked annoyed- but also worried. "Jazz being here in and of itself is not the worst thing that could happen." He began, starting off almost as soon as he had joined her. "Jazz doesn't believe in ghosts, so she's surely never going to buy the whole half-ghost thing or whatever it is that I am. But Jazz being here means that she might contact my parents, and that is something we do not want."

"Not to mention if Umbra finds her here, he might try and use her to get to us." Valerie added, to which Danny nodded.

"That's right, that's the even bigger problem." He said, crossing his arms in front of him, heaving a sigh. "What a fine mess this is. Even when we've gotten involved with snoopers in the past, they've never been able to come up with this information about us. This Sam girl sure is persistent."

"Yeah, she reminds me of someone I know." Valerie said, giving Phantom a pointed look. "What should we do, Phantom? Do we move on? I think I can get a pretty solid estimate of the next town Umbra will head to."

"No, that's not an option." Phantom shook his head. "We need to try and save as many people as possible while we're here. And we're this close to getting Umbra once and for all, I can feel it in my bones. If we move ahead now, we might loose track of him entirely, and it might take us another four years or even longer to recover the ground we've lost."

"That's true." Valerie nodded. "There's also still nothing stopping Umbra from trying to use Jazz even if we're not here. We need to think of a way to ensure that Jazz doesn't contact your parents."

Phantom nodded his head, agreeing. "That's true. It's my parents that are the huge problem. If my parents come and catch even a look at me, there's no way they won't stop hunting me. And we might be able to lose Jazz if we can't capture Umbra here, but I'm not so sure about my mother."

"True enough." Valerie nodded. "Do you think we should maybe tell Jazz the truth?"

Danny snorted, shaking his head. "No. It's not a question of her not believing us if we show her proof- Jazz is a woman of logic, after all, the only reason she doesn't believe in ghosts is because she's never seen proof of them existing. Rather, if we tell her, and she learns exactly what kind of danger we're putting ourselves in, then she'll definitely call my parents in order to stop us, because she would be worried. She probably wouldn't even think of what consequences such a call could bring to me while she's making it."

"I see." Valerie frowned. "Perhaps we should just play it by ear." She said. "After all, we have no proof that she's going to jump the gun and call your parents here yet." She pointed out. "For all she knows, we might have moved on already, and knowing Jazz, she probably wouldn't want to get your families hopes up falsely. She would probably wait until she's seen you herself, and then make the phone call."

"So we should try to avoid being seen." Phantom frowned. "Well, that's easy for me to do, but what about you Valerie? You're human after all, you can't really make yourself invisible."

"Don't worry about, I'm a bit more stealthy than you give me credit for." She assured him, unable to resist smirking. "After all, as I recall, absolutely none of you were ever able to find me when we played hide and seek as children." She bragged. "Even in an unfamiliar city, I think I'll do just fine."

"Oh, so you're turning it into a city wide game of hide and seek?" Phantom asked, unable to help sounding amused at the idea. "Well, that's true. Of course, as I recall, every time nobody found you for a long time, you would blow your cover and come out crying because you were lonely." He playfully taunted her, grinning a little, for a moment forgetting his fears about Jazz being here. Valerie had a way of making him forget his problems, at least for a little while, without really trying.

"That was when I was a kid!" Valerie protested, color rising to her cheeks. "As I recall, as a kid, you were scared of ghosts. And now look at you."

"Well, that's true." Phantom laughed. "Well, it's hard not to be when instead of bedtime stories, your father tells you scary stories about ghosts that just end up keeping you awake at night." He said, shaking his head. "Mom was angry at him when she found out." A look of regret crossed over his face then, mentioning memories of happy times with his parents brought up some feelings of hurt knowing that he might never be able to go back to them the way he was now.

There was no way they would accept him like this, he couldn't make himself believe anything else, in spite of Valerie's attempts to convince him otherwise.

"It would be nice to go back, wouldn't it?" Valerie said, catching her friend's mood. "Don't worry, once we capture Umbra, for sure we'll be able to return you to normal, Danny." She assured him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Don't let yourself get depressed over this. I'm sure things will work out if we keep trying."

She smiled at him. "Even if it doesn't go perfectly, I'm here with you. I'll never leave your side." Valerie promised him, which got her a grateful smile. "That's right, you'll be stuck with me even when I'm an annoying old granny!"

Phantom couldn't help but chuckle. "Knowing you, you would probably be the most annoying one of all."

"Oh, got back some of your infamous wit?" Valerie asked, punching him lightly in the shoulder. "That's more like the ghost boy I know. As long as we keep our spirits up, good things will come our way."

"I suppose that's right." Phantom nodded his head. "There's no reason to get depressed about this when we still don't know if it's possible or not to restore me to normal. If getting half of my soul stolen did this to me, then theoretically, getting that part back would fix the problem." He said. "At least in theory. Like you said, it's unlikely Umbra would throw away that portion or consume it. A connoisseur like him would never dream of eating a half finished soul."

"Back on the Jazz subject, we have to remember to keep our eyes open for her. It's very likely that she's planning on staying here for a few days and search for us herself. We'll have to keep our eyes peeled and make sure she doesn't get herself caught up into any trouble, while also avoiding getting seen ourselves. I would say that you're perfect for Jazz watch duty then, but I don't really know if you can handle it..." Valerie hesitated.

"I can do it." Phantom grinned. "That will make searching for Umbra harder, but I'd rather not have the chance of something happening to Jazz while I'm here."

"Got it. Both of us can keep our eyes and ears open for anything pertaining to Umbra while we're doing that." Valerie nodded her head.

"For now, it would be better for you to look out for Umbra, Valerie." Phantom said. "Jazz is probably a higher priority target for Umbra than the reporter girl. I don't doubt that he knows we're here already. We can't afford to abandon our search for his hiding place. He's somewhere in one of these of humans, that much is true."

"From the sounds of it, I think he's hiding out in Borley High School somewhere." Valerie theorized. "All of the victims so far have had connections to the school, and schools have always been perfect feeding grounds for him." She said. "The body they found early this morning turned out to belong to another teacher there."

"Most likely. We should keep a close watch of Borley High, as I thought." Phantom frowned. "This would be so much easier if his possession was more obvious. I couldn't tell at all that he was possessing the mayor. He seemed the same as he always was, right down to hitting on my mother." He rolled his eyes at that. "Probably is still doing that, come to think of it. Guy can't take no for answer."

"That's true." Valerie snorted. She paused, seeming to be pondering something. "On the other hand, we've got someone here who was able to do something nobody else has done in the past four years, and that was connect us to a previous chain of suicides somewhere else. Maybe it would be worth it to let this Sam girl know a few more details."

"What, and have her stall for time so she can contact my sister?" Phantom rolled his eyes. "Besides, we just warned her off the case, and now you're saying we should call her back on it to look out for Umbra's host, the most dangerous task of all? I think that's one of your dumber ideas, to be honest Valerie."

"I'm just putting it on the table." She said. "It's something to consider. That girl has a knack for detective work."

"Yeah, but the last time some detective or journalist or whatever was able to find out what was going on and find the host, they were stabbed to death." Phantom pointed out.

"Ah, but we weren't there for that." Valerie told him. "And we're here. We can provide Sam ways to protect herself from Umbra. Like the Specter Deflector?" She suggested.

"It's true that it will protect her from ghosts and wraiths, but I seriously doubt it will protect her against sharp, pointy objects." Phantom said dryly.

Valerie simply heaved a sigh. "Well, keep it in mind Phantom. Considering that she seems to be determined to investigate anyways, it might be wise to give her a few more details so she can protect herself a little better."

Phantom frowned, considering this. Valerie had a point- he had no doubt the goth girl would continue to pursue the case, and would more than likely attract Umbra's attention one way or another. Then wouldn't it be a good idea to tell her what to look out for? For all he knew, Umbra could have been possessing the boy she was always hanging out with, or someone else she knew, and they might already be aware of what she was doing. It might not be a bad idea to tell someone who was likely going to throw themselves into danger anyways, a little bit of what was going on, so they could either be more well informed and thus protect themselves better, or back out of everything entirely.

"Alright." Phantom said after a moment. "I'll talk to her myself. It's probably better if it's me."

Valerie gave him a small smile. "Alright. Who better to prove the existence of ghosts than a half-ghost?" She asked.

"You know," Phantom laughed, glancing over towards the goth bookstore. "Somehow I don't think getting her to believe in the supernatural will be much of a problem."


	4. Stench

Author's Note: Chapter Four is here! I actually really like this one yay, it turned out great! Some questions are answered, and we get our first glimpse at our mysterious antagonist. As always, Danny Phantom is not mine, but Umbra does belong to me.

Please read and review, if you could be so kind!

* * *

Dark Angel

Chapter Four: Stench

Sam Manson was never one to be afraid of the dark. Not even when she was a child, she had no fear of it, never requiring a nightlight to doze off at night. But there was something about the knowledge that most likely, there was some unknown _thing _lurking out there, causing people to do the unthinkable, was enough to make her more than a little apprehensive this night. Somehow she found it hard to believe that it had only been three days since everything had begun to happen- it seemed much longer than that. Perhaps the only good news was that no more bodies had been reported since the one early in the morning.

It gave her some time to think.

Absently, she wondered if she should consider looking up against charms to ward off evil spirits, wondering if she should consider investing in some purified salt or some holy water, but dismissed it. Somehow she had a feeling that such things didn't really work. Now, whatever that strange white haired kid had done to her on the first night, when she felt as if she was about to be overcome with some sort of strange exhaustion, that surely had. She wondered how she did it- perhaps he had some sort of strange power. It would certainly explain how he had been able to vanish in the blink of an eye, and how he had put all of those police officers asleep.

"You're not really one to listen to warnings, are you?"

Sam jumped a little, quickly pivoting on her heel to confront the person behind her. As if her thoughts had summoned her, the white haired boy from earlier stood before her, although his hood was raised up, partially obscuring his face. There was a strange element to his voice, a vague echo that she wondered if perhaps it was just her hearing playing tricks on her.

"And you really like sneaking up on people." Sam observed, her body still tensed. She didn't think that he meant her harm, but nevertheless, she was prepared for the possibility. "Danny Fenton, was it?"

There was a flash in his strange blue eyes, which seemed to glow in the darkness. They were hard to read, nearly appearing dead, but there was the occasional spark of emotion in them- such as just thing. Was that shame, she wondered, frowning a little as it faded quickly as it had come, and the white haired boy simply shrugged. "Not anymore. Phantom will do fine."

"You don't seem surprised that I know who you are." Sam observed.

"No." Phantom said simply, grinning a little. "We've been keeping tabs on you, after all. You're in danger, getting yourself involved in this. Well, nonetheless I am impressed. You're the first snoop in four years to track our identities. I guess nobody else cared as much as you do."

"I don't appreciate the idea of being watched." Sam frowned. She had gotten the vaguest feeling of that lately, although she hadn't brought it up with Tucker. She didn't want him to worry, and knew that he would try and convince her to call it quits if she had. That was something she very much did not want to do. "So if you know that I know who you are, you should know that your older sister is in town. And she's deeply, deeply worried about you."

"I'm aware on both counts." Phantom said- and there was another flash again. Regret? Sam couldn't quite place it. "I don't intend to see her. You can tell her I'm well if you like. Maybe it will give her some piece of mind."

"I don't think she's going to get any piece of mind as long as you're mixed up in this business." Sam observed. "You've been chasing it, haven't you? Whatever it is that's causing all of this."

"Quite astute, you seem like you're made out to be a detective." Phantom noted. "Well, that's part of our problem. You see, Red and I don't have the time to keep babysitting you. We don't want you further involving my sister either, seeing as she could be easily used against us. I'm not happy to see her here, to be honest. By bringing her to Borley, you've put her in danger."

There was a flash of anger, clear and visible in his eyes. "And I really don't appreciate my family being put in danger."

"You seem pretty sure of yourself." Sam said, not flinching at his attempt at intimidation. Sam Manson didn't intimidate easily. "Well then, Phantom, perhaps if you don't want me to be snooping around, you can cut to the chase and explain things to me."

"I intend to." Phantom said. "But first off, a present." He told her, pulling something from a worn looking bag that hung from her shoulder. He held it gingerly, almost as if he was afraid of hurting himself with it- which was silly, considering it was just some kind of weird metal belt.

"Thanks, but I don't think it exactly matches my style." Sam said, quirking an eyebrow.

"It's not for fashion statements." Phantom said, offering the belt to her. Against her better judgement, Sam took it. "It protects the user from ghosts and specters alike when it's activated. If you want to be safe from a ghost, wearing this is your best bet to avoid direct physical harm- or possession as the case might be." He explained, before handing her a small silver key- which Sam assumed was what activated the belt. "It's a Specter Deflector."

"I take it your parents made this." Sam noted, holding the belt in her hands, peering at it curiously. To be honest, she couldn't really begin to see how it was that it was supposed to do what it intended, but she decided to take his word on this one. Wrapping it around her waist, she adjusted it a little before snapping it into place. Once she placed the key in the belt and turned it, it let of a small sparking sound, before it died down.

"Does it work?" She asked, sounding rather skeptical.

Not answering her question, Phantom extended a hand, placing it on her shoulder. In an instant, the belt flare to life, letting out a painful burst of electricity, which caused the white haired boy to wince, quickly snatching his hand away. "Yeah, works just fine, it looks like." He said, nursing his hand- and leaving Sam dumbfounded, until the gears in her head began to move again.

"Phantom's more than just a nickname, isn't it?" She said, her eyes going wide. Sure, she had talked to Tucker about believing in ghosts and all that- but if a belt made to deflect ghosts harmed Phantom then that could only mean one thing.

Phantom was a ghost.

A very solid, very visible ghost, but unmistakably a ghost. Suddenly the echo in his voice, the glowing eyes, and his disappearing act began to make more sense- especially when she added in the faint glow she had begun to notice around him, now that the hour was late.

"You're a ghost." Sam said slowly.

"Not quite." Phantom shrugged his shoulders. "But something close to it. I'm a victim of Umbra, the spirit that is causing all this mess." He told her. "Perhaps it would be a bit more useful to you if I explained from the beginning. Shall we walk? I don't really like staying in one place for too long when I know it's creeping about somewhere in the town."

"From the beginning would be nice." Sam said, resisting the urge to pull out her recorder. Somehow she didn't think Phantom would like it if she attempted to record this whole conversation.

"Four years ago, in my hometown of Amity Park, there was a sudden, I guess, outbreak is really the best word for it- of suicides. One of the first victims was our high school therapist and her companion." He told her- never had figured out how Penelope and Bertrand were related to each other. Family? Lovers? Friends? Eh, well, at the moment, it wasn't important. "To be honest, we thought it was a bit strange at first ourselves. But it came closer to home not long after when Red's father walked himself into the middle of rush hour traffic."

Sam couldn't help but wince, recalling the name 'Damon Gray' from the list of the dead. What a way to go.

"Shortly after that, the next day, we got word that our friend, Ember's house was on fire, and that she was unaccounted for. She had started the fire herself, and had locked herself inside her closest." Phantom explained. "Neither of them had reasons to kill themselves- Ember was about to make connections with a very important person in the music business that could have propelled her career forward. Red's father was a very successful man in the security business, and was about to release a new security system that would change the world as he said it."

"Before they died, both were behaving oddly, as if their energy levels were suddenly going down until it seemed as if they were merely running on auto-pilot." He continued. "That's what happens when a person's soul is stolen. It won't kill them, people can, in theory, live without their souls. That is, if they resist the overwhelming compulsion that grows within them to take their own lives. As much as humans can live without souls in theory, in practice, their body and brain senses something very wrong- and they attempt to correct that."

"So, suicide." Sam said for clarification.

"Yes." Phantom nodded. "Valerie and I decided to investigate after we overheard our parents speculating about ghosts being related to the cases. Yes, yes, I know, that sounds awfully hypocritical considering that we've been trying to warn you off the case, but there's good reason for it. You really could end up dead- or perhaps worse, if you're not careful."

"What's worse than being dead?" Sam asked, raising a brow.

"Being neither here nor there." Phantom said simply. "That's what I am, I guess. I'm not quite dead, but I'm not exactly alive either. Oh, we found what was causing everything, alright. And then it promptly tried to eat my soul for the trouble." Absently, he reached up a hand to the back of his neck, rubbing it as he frowned. Just talking about it brought up rather unpleasant memories. "Getting your soul ripped out of you hurts like hell. Hurts even more if the meal gets interrupted mid-way, which, thanks to Valerie's sharpshooting, did."

_"__**Danny**__!" The unmistakable shriek of his best friend swam in his ears, although he couldn't take his eyes away from what was in front of him. The thing had transfixed him, and he was unable to break himself from it's gaze. He shuddered as it pulled the boy towards him, grasping him so tightly that his arms were sure to bruise. And then, although he had thought there was no mouth, it opened it, and all he knew then was pain. He could feel his soul being torn from his body, sucked from him in the form of a silvery mist._

_"__**Get away from him!" **__Valerie's scream barely echoed in his ears- and then, for a moment, there was nothing. No feeling at all in his body, and he wondered if perhaps he had died._

_And then there was pain again. But worse, so much worse, unimaginable pain. He would have screamed but he couldn't even manage to make a sound, the pain coursing through his body taking over every single one of his senses. It was as if his own body was fighting against him, wanting to deny him, but was simultaneously fighting against shutting itself down, going to war with itself. He didn't even have any idea how long it lasted, everything else but the pain was completely shut out._

"Phantom? Phantom!" Sam called out, absently reaching over to give him a shake. He had been speaking to her one moment, and then he had been lost in thought. Of course, doing so caused a spark to jump out from the Specter Deflector, shocking the boy, which startled him into awareness as he snatched his arm away from her. Wincing, he glanced down at the source of this pain, and sighed.

"Sorry. I got a little lost in thought there." He said. "Well, I'm what's worse than just dying." He told her again. "On one hand, I get some pretty nifty powers." He said, and as if to demonstrate, he suddenly vanished, before reappearing exactly where he had been. "But I only have half a soul." He confessed to her, placing a hand over his chest with a small frown. His heart beat very slowly in his chest, far too slowly for any normal human. "I'm barely what you could call alive. While humans can survive without their whole souls without any real damage to their body, it would seem that half a soul is another question entirely."

"It's a bit complicated." Phantom confessed after a moment. "After that, Red and I have been chasing Umbra, trying to track him down and put an end to him. Which is easier said than done! He's a rather ancient spirit as things go. But we've been catching up to him as late, and I'm sure if we just press forward a bit more, we'll finally have him. He can be destroyed, of that much I am confident in- he was injured when Red shot him back then, after all. And he seems weak to my powers."

"Can I ask a question that might be a bit personal?" Sam said after a moment. She seemed almost hesitant to say it, and Phantom had a feeling that he already knew what she was going to ask him.

"Depends on the question." He shrugged his shoulders, knowing no other answer to give.

"Is being the way you are... you know, half-dead or whatever it is, the real reason why you decided to leave Amity Park?" Sam asked. "Because you thought your parents wouldn't understand? What you are, I mean." They were ghost hunters, after all, and Phantom seemed decidedly ghostly, apparently to the point where their ghost hunting equipment seemed to respond to him.

"That's part of the reason." Phantom confessed after a moment, glancing down at his hands. "Hell, I don't even really understand what I'm supposed to be now. I've never run into anyone like me, which I guess is a good thing, because it means nobody else has had to go through this." Placing his hands back down to his sides, he frowned. "But that's only part of the reason. Someone has to do something to stop Umbra. And I've been given some kind of weird powers from all of this, it might as well be me."

"And Red?" She asked.

"Red's the one who suggested it in the first place." Phantom said, shrugging his shoulders. "She doesn't have any family anymore. Her mom died when she was still little and her father- well, you know what happened to her father. I think she wants to take revenge on Umbra for taking away what family she had left, and I don't really blame her for it."

"I see." Sam said, frowning a little. "So, this Umbra, it eats souls?" She asked.

"Mmhm." Phantom said, a bit absently. "It moves around the world, eating souls as it goes. While it's in a new town, it possess a host and manipulates them. When Umbra leaves, it usually kills the host. Well." He paused, frowning a little. "Red's convinced that Umbra has left a host alive at least once in recent years for some reason. Something about a case from six years ago where a reporter was stabbed. She thinks the host is the one that stabbed the reporter, because she had managed to get too close to the truth- and perhaps to some other vital information. I don't know what I think about that theory myself."

"Was that in a place called Winstonville?" Sam asked.

Phantom laughed a little. "You _have_ done your homework. Yes."

"How can you tell if someone is the host?" She asked, wondering if perhaps she could ferret them out herself.

"I can tell, _generally_. I guess it's because Umbra is carrying around part of my soul." Phantom said. "As for other ways... well, my senses are the most reliable method. That said, it isn't foolproof. I've had the host right under my nose sometimes, and didn't sense them at all." He told her, thinking it over. "Sometimes it can be someone who shows up at the scene of death often. Umbra likes to check on his work. I'm afraid I can't help you there." He paused, sending her a warning glare. "And you shouldn't get any ideas in your head about ferreting him out yourself. Umbra's dangerous, the Specter Deflector won't entirely protect you from him, although it will help. If it gets you into a trance, and there's no one around to save you well... that's the end of it. A week or so later, you'll be cutting your own throat or something along those lines."

"Why a week?" Sam asked. "And if you don't mind me asking... who was the host in Amity Park?"

"It takes that long, or about that long for a body to wear itself down without the soul." Phantom explained. "As for the who the host back was in Amity- it was probably the last person I would have suspected. Our town mayor, Vlad Masters, an old college buddy of my father's, even. Well, come to think of it, I heard that he lived too- but the circumstances around that time were different than the circumstances everywhere else. Umbra left pretty quickly after I became like... this."

"But if you encounter Umbra, or Umbra's host, run and hope for the best. I'd give you a number to contact me, but Red and I naturally don't have cell phones. There's not really any surefire way to contact us." Phantom told her, frowning a bit- that would complicate things, wouldn't it? Too bad cell phones were tricky business- he wasn't sure they could get some that couldn't be traced.

"If it's a cell phone you need," Sam began reaching into her bag, handing the white haired boy a small cell phone. "Then that's something I can provide. It's pre-paid and my number is already dialed in."

"Uh," Phantom took the phone, looking at Sam in mild confusion. "So what, you just... walk around with pre-paid cell phones in the off chance you need to give one to somebody?" He asked.

"Well, yes." Sam blinked. "You have to be prepared for anything when you're a journalist. How do you and Red communicate anyways, if you don't have cell phones?"

"Walkie talkies." Phantom confessed, laughing a little. "We're not a very high tech pair, aside from our gear."

"Tucker would hate you." Sam laughed. "Speak of the devil," She said, pulling out her own cell phone, which was ringing. "It's Tucker. He probably wants me to go meet him." She paused before answering the phone, looking over at Phantom. "I take it you want me to tell your sister nothing."

"Nothing." Phantom nodded. "I'll let you go- I've got hunting of my own to do, after all." He said, before taking a step back, and vanishing from view.

Sam watched him go, before finally answering the phone, ignoring whatever it was Tucker was going on about, cutting him off. "Tucker? Meet me at the Skulk and Lurk. I've got new information."

* * *

Jazz Fenton was practically walking on air.

For all that she had been told by Sam, none of it managed to dampen the sense of hope that she had found. Her brother and Valerie were here! They were definitely here! While it was true that they might have left already, somehow, Jazz knew it in her bones that wasn't true. They were still here, in this city, she could sense that much. She kept her eyes constantly peeled, hopeful that fate would take it's course, and cause her to run into one of them.

Although she had nixed calling her family earlier, when she still wasn't sure as to the information that she had gotten, she reconsidered it now. Still, the fact that they seemed to be mixed up in something strange caused her to hesitate. Even if they missed the pair again in Borley, at the very least she could assure her parents that the pair was alive and well. No doubt that at least, her mother and father would be relieved to hear, as well as her little sister.

Then again, recalling the information that she had gotten from Sam- the girl seemed awfully convinced that ghosts were related to what was going on here. Jazz honestly thought it was all cock and bull, there was most likely a perfectly logical reason behind everything that was going on, both here, and in Amity Park four years ago. However, she knew her parents well enough to know that they would jump on the theory right away, and would be over here on the next flight.

And then there was the matter of Danny's appearance.

Even in the blurry, unfocused photo of him that Sam had passed on to her, she could make out that he had been changed. Valerie hadn't changed her appearance that much, so it puzzled her as to why only her little brother would do so. How did he even get his hair to be that shade of white? It reminded her of freshly fallen snow, and didn't seem like the color of hair one went about obtaining naturally- unless one was quite old.

Still, Jazz wanted to tell somebody about this. And so, once she got to the privacy of her hotel room, she pulled out her cell phone, and dialed Dani's number. No doubt her little sister would be delighted to hear the news that Danny and Valerie were at the very least, alive and well. And there was also no doubt that she could keep her silence to her parents, at least until Jazz could get some more information about what exactly was going on here, and what exactly the pair had involved themselves in.

She didn't like the idea that either of them were throwing themselves into danger.

"Hello?" Her younger sister's voice came across the phone. "Is that you Jazz? What's up?" She asked, and from the sounds that greeted her ears, she could guess Dani was probably out and about.

"Hey Dani!" Jazz said, unable to contain her excitement, it was clearly heard in her voice. "Do you think you could dart off to somewhere a bit private for awhile? I have something to tell you, but I want to make sure that it's for your ears only. That includes mom and dad, I don't want you to mention a word of what I'm about to say to you, no matter what. I want you to promise."

"Wow, serious." Dani said, frowning into her phone. "Okay though, promise. Just give me a second here." The fourteen year old girl said, making her way out of the Nasty Burger, and into the alley behind it. "Okay, talk big sis. What's the super secret big news? You get into some kind of special program or something?"

"No, much better. There's been a confirmed sighting of them." Jazz said, and she knew that she didn't need to specify to Dani who 'them' was.

For a few moments, there was silence on the other end of the line, and Jazz had to check to make sure the phone hadn't hung up on her. She was glad she did, though, because in the very next moment, a loud shriek met her ears. She didn't even know her little sister could reach that volume.

"Are you serious, Jazz?!" Dani asked, her eyes all but sparkling with excitement. "And you don't want me to tell mom and dad yet? What's wrong with you? They're going to be so happy to hear about this! Oh, but are they alright? Do you know if they've been eating well, are they healthy, Jesus they haven't become disease ridden hobos or anything have they?"

"No, no, definitely not that last one. This is secondhand knowledge of course, but they seem to be doing well." Jazz assured her sister, and could hear her letting out a breath of relief. "I got to see a photograph of them, and it's unmistakably Valerie in the photo. Danny's a bit blurry and for some reason he bleached his hair, but they seem healthy, at least. As for why I don't want to tell mom and dad just yet, well..." She frowned, almost hesitating on this.

"They seem to be involved in something."

"Involved? In what exactly?" Dani frowned. "Not a gang or anything, are they? I thought they had more sense than that!" Granted the last time she had seen either of them, she had only been eleven, but still- she thought she knew her brother and his best friend fairly well.

"No, nothing like that." Jazz was quick to assure her sister. "Rather, you recall the circumstances around their disappearance, right? Well, something similar is going on here in Borley right now."

"Seriously?" Dani asked, frowning deeply. "Something like that can actually happen again? I thought it was just a freak occurrence- that's what everyone says here at least. Are you sure?"

"Sure as the day is long." She said. "Anyways, please promise not to tell mom and dad, Dani. I want to see if I can't get things sorted out first before I inform them. Besides, for all I know, they've already skipped town. They're very good at being elusive, unfortunately for us."

"I won't breathe a word of it, sis. Where did you say you were again?" Dani asked.

"A town called Borley, in Wisconsin." Jazz told her.

"Never heard of it." Dani frowned. "Okay sis, this is great news though! You figure out what's going on, and you get back to me as soon as you do, alright? Find big bro and bring him home. We all miss him terribly, and we're worried sick about him. And Valerie too!"

"I will Dani, or at the very least, I'll try my best." Jazz promised. "I have to go. I've got some things to look into. Love you, Dani. And remember, not a word to mom and dad." She said.

"Gotcha." Dani nodded. "Bye sis." She said, hanging up the phone. "Borley, Wisconsin, was it?" She said to herself, grinning a little. "She said not to tell mom and dad, but she was noticeably mum on telling me not to come over there myself. Good thing I have savings~."

* * *

The only reason Sam found herself in school the next morning, to be honest, was to appease the wrath of her parents. She had skipped out on class two days in a row now, and they were practically fuming, about ready to deny her any access to her journalism equipment unless she got her butt to class. So as much as she hated it, Sam found herself sitting in her first period since class, waiting for the teacher to arrive.

The door opened eventually, and in stepped a much older looking man, his graying hair slicked back. He wore a pair of worn looking glasses, that he had some apparent attachment to, and wore a white lab coat over his clothes.

"Hey, Mr. Technus!" One of the students called out, grinning from ear to ear. The teacher's last name was really Tatham, but at some point, long before Sam started to attend Borley High, he'd been nicknamed Technus. "What's on today's agenda?" The student asked, and the class eagerly awaited today's overblown speech of what their lab class would consist of. He did it to amuse the students, and it seemed to work- Mr. Technus was rather well liked among the student body, bumbling though he could be. He was the kind of teacher who listened and took notes from the ideas that students gave him, and honesty, if Sam had to be forced to attend class while there was a big news story going on, this was probably the one she wanted to go to.

"Huh?" The teacher slowly blinked, and Sam frowned, noticing that he was lacking his usual energy. "Oh yes. Today is..." The man seemed to drift off again. "Please pardon me, I think I'm coming down with a bit of a bug." He said. "Today will be a study hall because of that." He told his students, which caused some to groan, and others some excitement, seeing it as a chance to slack off and play around.

Sam frowned. Somehow she didn't like the sound of this, but she couldn't exactly place why. Deciding that she could at least make use of this time to browse the net a bit, and look after some leads on this 'Umbra', she set up her laptop, and got to work. She was engaged in her searching that she almost didn't notice when there was a faint murmur of confusion amongst her classmates when their teacher simply got up and walked out of the room without so much a word.

And suddenly, Sam's blood ran cold.

Closing her laptop and stuffing it in her bag as quickly as she could, she got up and ran out the door after her teacher, leaving some of the students muttering in confusion behind her. Most of them seemed to brush it off as 'Manson being weird again', but she dismissed it, having more important things on her mind at the moment. "Mr. Technus!" She called after her teacher, but he didn't seem to hear her.

Instead, he entered the teacher's lounge, empty at this time of day, and locked the door. Swearing underneath her breath, Sam quickly pulled out her lock picking kit, shaking a little as she worked the lock on the door. Thankfully, it was a simple lock, and the door opened right up- just in time for her to watch in horror as the science teacher opened up cabinet underneath the sink, and pulled out a bottle of drain cleaner, popping off the top and began to all but chug the toxic material down.

"Stop it!" Sam called out, and not knowing what else to do, she tackled the teacher. The bottle of drain cleaner clunked on the floor, it's contents spilling out as Sam pinned the teacher down, keeping him from reaching for it again. But he had gotten some already, and it was clearly making quick work of him. In a panic, Sam pulled out her cell phone, shakily dialing 911. Dumbly, she relayed the situation from the dispatcher, and somehow or another, managed to provide emergency treatment. It wasn't until Technus was being wheeled out on a stretcher when she finally came back to her senses, her heart pounding heavily in her chest.

"You again, huh?" One of the officers called to the scene spoke to her in a rather dry tone, and Sam dimly recalled that it was the one she had spoken to about Kitty and Paulina. Borley didn't exactly have a very large police department- everyone here was a familiar face, now that she thought about it. Turning to face the sandy blonde haired police officer, she took a deep breath, trying to steady her shaking.

"Shut up." Sam snapped, glowering at him. "I don't want to hear your snark when I just saved someone's life- hopefully, at least. That's more than any of you guys have done since this all started."

_That _seemed to shut the officer up, and he cleared his throat. "Right well, we need to take your statement, Miss Manson. How did you know that the victim was about to attempt to take his own life?"

Sam frowned, wondering how to best answer that question. She didn't think 'a guy with half a soul told me all about this ancient spirit that steals souls and causes people to kill themselves' would do it. "It was a hunch. He was acting very strangely and very out of character. With everything else that's being going on lately... I had a bad feeling in my gut." She told him.

Writing that down, the officer nodded. "I see. So when you got into the room, he had just started drinking the..."

"Drain cleaner." Sam supplied for him, glancing over at the discarded bottle. The officer motioned to another to take it for evidence.

"Right. Well, thanks to your quick action, he might have a chance at recovery. If he survives, he'll most likely be placed under suicide watch." The officer told her. "Look, I know I've snapped at you in the past for lurking around crime scenes- which you still shouldn't by the way, don't get me wrong- but you did alright today, Manson. You should be proud. Most likely you saved his life."

Sam couldn't help but glow a little at the praise, a faint blush rising to her cheeks. "Oh well, thank you. It's what anyone would have done, I think."

With that, the officer asked her a few more questions, and got her contact information. By now, a crowd had gathered outside the door, including a visibly worried looking Tucker. Sam already knew that Mr. Technus was one of his favorite teachers, no doubt he was worried sick about him. And while Sam had saved his life for now, she had this feeling in her gut that it wouldn't last. From the way Phantom had made it sound, the only real way to save someone who had their soul removed was to put the soul back in- and if Umbra had already consumed Technus' soul, that would never happen.

She wondered about how Phantom and Valerie dealt with these things. It probably wasn't easy.

* * *

It had been a long day after that. School was called off for the day, and the students, save for Sam, were dispersed. She had to give the story again and again, until she was tired of it, to practically ever member of the staff of Borley High. While some of the teachers commended her for her brave actions, at least one of them had something to say about having lock picks on her, and had confiscated them, against her protests. Eventually, she'd been sent home, but by that time, it was already getting dark out and she'd ended up wasting a whole day of potential investigation.

The good news was that Mr. Technus had lived, and was being watched carefully for any sign of changes. Sam wondered how long that would last, glumly thinking that at the first chance he would get, he would try again. Was there anything she could do to stop it? Maybe if she asked Phantom again, he would know something- but somehow, Sam doubted it.

It wasn't a feeling that she liked, being powerless. There had to be something that she could do. Absently, she tinkered with the Specter Deflector, still around her waist. She had camouflaged it a little with a slightly longer shirt, not wanting the rather unusual accessory to stand out. Frankly, she hoped that she wouldn't end up making use of it. By nature, Sam was a brave person, but from the way Phantom had talked about this thing- she sure didn't want to meet it.

Blinking, Sam looked around her, and then swore under her breath. She had been thinking too much, and in doing so, had ended up wandering in the wrong direction. "Where the hell even am I?" She groaned, looking around the rather empty section of street. It didn't look like anyone lived in these houses around her anymore, and their shuttered windows gave her a rather eerie feeling. Deciding it was best to remove herself from the area as soon as possible, she turned sharply on her heel, and started marching back from whence she had come.

And that was when she smelled it.

Phantom hadn't mentioned the smell.

Reaching for her nose, Sam found her eyes tearing up from the overpowering scent that had suddenly manifested itself. Her heart pounded heavily in her chest, a feeling of dread rising in her as she decided to do probably the wisest thing in her entire life.

She bolted.

She ran as fast as her legs could carry her, away from that place, away from that STENCH. She only spared a glance back behind her- and suddenly wished that she hadn't.

The creature that lurked there, watching her (but there were no eyes, but it was WATCHING her), was nothing short of a horror show. It was pitch black, withering, as if it were a part of the darkness. It had a mockery of a human shape- but that shape ended at the torso, there was no neck or head, and massive glob-like wings dripped and oozed from it's back. It's arms were long, much, much too long for a human, watching down past what would be it's knees, if it had any. Instead everything came together past the torso in kind of a blob, it reminded her of a snake's tail.

And vaguely, Sam realized, there was a gaping maw in the dead center of it's chest, and she could see hints of white gleaming inside of it- far too much white for her tastes.

There was no real way she could outrun that thing, of that she was sure, and yet it wasn't chasing her. Dimly, Sam realized that this creature, this 'Umbra' was taunting her. Mocking her, telling her that it could take her any time it wanted to- but it simply didn't want to right now.

Sam didn't stop running until she had made it to her home, and stopped, gasping for breath on her front steps, feeling as if she was about to collapse, her lungs and throat burning from exertion. She slumped down, letting the cool marble of the front steps soothe her a little, as she tried to get that thing out of her head. Worst yet, she could still smell it, a smell which she dimly realized must have been something akin to rotting flesh. Suddenly, the full horror of what exactly she was dealing with seeped into her very bones, the thought that this thing could be residing in anyone, watching her, was outright _terrifying_.

Trying to calm herself down, she took in and let out a few deep breaths, although she coughed heavily first the first time that she tried, and it took her a bit to calm it back down. Eventually, however, she managed to get the fear to subside, and shakily, she found herself digging for her cell phone.

She cursed a little as her trembling fingers made it hard for her to dial, and nearly leaped out of her skin when her phone began to ring of it's on accord- before she realized that was what phones normally do, when someone is calling them. Taking in and letting out a deep breath, she slowly put the phone to her ear.

"H-hello?" She asked, slowly realizing she hadn't even bothered to check the caller ID.

"Sam?" Tucker's voice came across the other end of the phone, sounding a bit confused. "Is that you? You sound like you've seen a ghost or something."

"Well." Sam paused, taking in and letting out another deep breath. "Tucker, I think I have." There was a long pause then, almost as if she didn't want to admit what she was about to say. "Tucker, I think that I might have gotten into something over my head."

"I'm scared."


	5. The Worst Possible Complication

Author's Note: Yay, next chapter is here~! All of the factors are gathering up now, what fun. I think sometimes it is the most fun to write these kind of 'commence into action' chapters. Anyways, I don't have much to say this time, so I will leave you all to it!

As always, Danny Phantom does not belong to me, although Umbra does. Please review if you are able, I love hearing all of your thoughts, feedback, and theories!

* * *

Dark Angel

Chapter Five: The Worst Possible Complication

Tucker knew something was wrong.

There were things that his friend, Sam, was afraid of to be sure, although he questioned the validity of some of her phobias. After all, who could be afraid of teddy bears? But Sam was also the sort of person to not show weakness to anyone- even to those closest to her. Not unless something was seriously wrong.

And something was seriously wrong.

"Where are you?" Tucker asked, already getting to his feet and gathering his stuff, heading out the door. "Don't move, I'm going to come right over."

"Home. On the front steps." Sam said. "You don't need to come over Tucker, I'll be fine. It's just a momentary episode. I feel better already now that I've said it out loud."

"Un-unh, no way, I'm coming over. You just sit tight." Tucker said, running as fast as he could go- which, sadly for him, was not all that fast. He wasn't _exactly_ built for activities of a physical nature, after all. That was more of Sam's department.

"_Fine_." Sam grumbled, knowing that Tucker wouldn't forgive her if she didn't listen to him this once. He could be rather serious when it came to the well being of his friends, after all. And as embarrassed as she was to admit such a thing to anyone, she knew that if it were Tucker, he would listen to her and understand her without judging her for it. After all, she was the cool and tough Sam Manson, Borley High's fearless Goth reporter. If people knew that 'fear' was a word even in her dictionary, they would probably never let her live it down.

She hung up her cell phone then, rubbing her arms a little. They were having an unseasonably cold start to spring, she thought, and while she wasn't a fan of summer, she wouldn't mind it if it started to warm up a little already. It was nearly the end of March, and she could still see her breath, for Pete's sake.

Vaguely, Sam wondered if Phantom could feel the cold. When he had touched her before, he had always seemed like a block of ice. She wondered how he managed to live with it all, with not entirely being human, but also likewise unsure as to what one could call themselves. She shuddered a little, as if suddenly envisioning what it must have been like to have your soul ripped out by that- that thing, whatever it was.

When she had heard Phantom call it a spirit, she'd assumed it would be different. To be honest, thinking back on it, Sam wasn't sure what she thought it would look like- but something other than _that_, at least. And certainly, she hadn't expected the stench. She could still smell it as if it were clinging to her very body, and she doubted that showering would do much good at getting it out.

It was taunting her.

That was the part that she liked least.

Maybe it had been a warning, to stop while she was ahead, to get out of it's business and uninvolve herself with Phantom and Red. But Sam knew that she couldn't do that- she couldn't just know that something like this was going on in her hometown, and do nothing about it. It wasn't about her student newspaper anymore, it was about what was right- and there was no way that letting some kind of Eldritch Abomination rampage through town and steal souls was the right thing to do.

She couldn't turn a blind eye to this. Even if she wasn't sure that she could even do anything against it.

She wondered if this was what Phantom had first thought, when he decided to look into the matter. He'd been powerless then, just a normal human with slightly abnormal parents. Placing a hand on the Specter Deflector that he had given her, she frowned a little, suddenly feeling that it wasn't much of a defense.

"Okay!" She could hear Tucker breathlessly call out as he hurried down the sidewalk towards her, only stopping for breath once he was in front of the steps, his lungs burning from the effort he had just exerted. "I'm here. I-" He stammered again, collapsing on the step next to her, still trying to catch his breath. "I'm here."

"I feel safer already." Sam said dryly- but strangely, his presence did help. "We have really got to work on getting you more fit, Foley." She observed. She knew that she had said this to him countless times, and that countless times, he had always brushed her off, but it was routine for them. It was nice.

"Oh shut up." Tucker frowned, glowering at her, an expression which quickly slipped away into one of concern. "Are you okay Sam? It's not like you to say that you're afraid of anything. What's going on?"

"Let's go to my room. We can talk there." Sam said, standing up, vaguely wondering if Tucker couldn't smell the scent which she could have sworn still clung to her. Maybe it was something only she was aware of, perhaps it was only in her head.

Nodding, Tucker let Sam unlock the door and lead her inside, following her up the familiar path to her bedroom. Once inside, Sam closed and locked the door behind her, not wanting her folks to barge in on this conversation. If they knew that she was doing anything this dangerous, she had no doubt that they would send her packing off to one of her aunts or uncles elsewhere in the state- and if they heard her seriously talking about ghosts and spirits, they would probably just ship her off to a mental asylum instead.

"Take a seat." Sam said, and Tucker did so even before she invited him too, plopping down in a chair and scooted it up towards her bed. She took a seat on her bed, giving him a small smile. "Thanks for coming though, Tuck. It means a lot to me, you know, even if I don't always say it out loud. I value your friendship, you know."

"I know." Tucker told her, grinning a little. "But save the sappy speeches, Sam, they're not your style anyways. Why don't you tell me what you're so afraid of? Does it have something to do with all this... this Umber business?"

"Umbra." Sam corrected him, and slowly nodded her head. "Tucker I..." She hesitated then, wondering if he would really even believe her- she knew that he was still skeptical about ghosts, and was skeptical about her information about Umbra and Phantom. He didn't seem to think that she was outright making anything up though, and he knew that he wouldn't laugh at her for whatever she was about to tell him.

"Tucker, I think I _saw _it." She said finally, and couldn't help but bring up it's visage in her memories then, a shudder running up her spine.

There was a long pause of silence there, and Tucker frowned. He knew that Sam wasn't just messing with him- she was scared, honestly scared, and he'd have to be a fool not to notice that much. "Are you sure?" He asked finally. "I mean Sam, I'll be honest, I'm still not sold on this whole supernatural involvement thing. It's a little outside of my field of expertise."

"I'm sure." Sam said again. "Tucker, I know you're a natural born skeptic, but you're going to have to trust me on this one- there is definitely something undeniably supernatural going on here. I've seen too much now to believe that it could ever be anything else. I know what I saw, and I know that it wasn't some kind of hallucination."

"I trust your judgement, Sam." Tucker nodded. "If you honestly and earnestly believe that this whole suicide outbreak has to do with spirits, then I'm behind you on that. But what are you going to do now? From the impression that you're giving me, it sounds like whatever you saw was pretty high up on the terror meter."

"No kidding." Sam grumbled, falling back on her bed. "I have to keep going, Tucker. I can't leave it like this. It's just not something that I'm capable of doing. But I don't want to drag you into danger if you don't think you can deal with it. If you can't, that's fine, I'm sure that I can manage without you. I don't want to put my friends at risk."

"Oh _no_." Tucker said shortly, shaking his head. "Sam, if you're going to be putting yourself in _any_ kind of danger, then I'm going to be right there behind you, watching your back. Just like I always do."

"Thanks, Tuck." Sam smiled a little and there was sincerity in her words this time. "That feels awfully reassuring."

"Hey, what are friends for?" Tucker asked, shrugging his shoulders.

* * *

"Hey, I brought you something."

Valerie knew the sound of Phantom's voice so well by now, along with the sense of his presence behind her, that she didn't even jump when the white haired boy all but seemed to manifest behind her. Instead, she put down her binoculars, smiling at him as she glanced back. "Oh, great, some grub! I'm starving."

"Properly bought and paid for, for a change." Phantom grinned, handing her the bag and taking a seat next to her. "Did you know they have a Nasty Burger in this town? Feels like it's been forever since we've run into one of those. I wonder how things are doing at the one we left behind."

"Probably the same as always." Valerie remarked, setting down the bag and pulling out a wrapped burger. She frowned, glancing in the bag, before she shot a lock back towards Phantom. "Nothing for you?"

"You know I don't really need to eat all that much anymore." Phantom gave her a small smile. It was true- ever since he'd entered into this half there state, he found that his appetite had been drastically cut in half. If he went for a weak without eating, then he only found himself a bit hungry, instead of being on the verge of starving to death. It was probably better that way anyways- he had stopped being able to taste his food around that time as well, so honestly, without any flavor, eating had become a chore to him.

"I'm worried about what will happen to your body when you go back to normal." Valerie frowned, unwrapping the burger. She hated to enjoy food when she knew that her best friend couldn't, but she also wasn't an idiot. She needed to be in top condition in order to fight Umbra, and that meant looking after her own needs. Besides, she knew Phantom well enough to know that he didn't bare her any grudges about her ability to do things that he couldn't anymore.

Like sleep.

He never slept anymore. Phantom never got tired, and in the past it had been proven that he couldn't sleep even if he tried.

"I'm sure I'll be fine." Phantom assured her. There seemed to be a silent addition of an 'if I go back to normal' to his words, but Valerie chose not to comment on it. "At worst I'll just gorge myself on food and then pass out for a week afterwards." He joked, giving her a small grin. "Anyways, how are things on your end?"

"All's quiet on the Jasmine front." Valerie remarked, taking a bite of her burger. "She seemed to be spending most of the day looking around for you, and I kept tabs on her. It didn't look like there were any other eyes on her though, if that's what you were worried about, Phantom. If we lay low enough, she might just decide that we've already left town. Maybe you could get that Sam girl to claim that someone saw us get on a bus out of here or something."

"I could try, but I'm not sure that she would take to the idea." Phantom frowned. "I don't think she wants to lie to my sister. I don't blame her, to be honest- I don't want to lie to Jazz either. But I don't know how she'll take all of this." He told her, motioning to his own body as he spoke.

"I think she'd be fine with it, Danny." Valerie said, glancing over at him. "She's your older sister, and she's not all crazy about ghosts like your folks are. I'm not sure she'd really understand but... to be honest, neither of us really understand anything about you either."

"Don't remind me." Phantom frowned, glumly gazing across the street where the hotel that Jazz was staying at was.

"Well, how were things over on your end?" Valerie asked, glancing over at him. "Did you look into that teacher? By the way, I hear it was Little Miss Goth who saved his life. I guess she doesn't realize that's not really a good thing in this case." She remarked. They had tried, in the past, to prevent people who had their souls eaten by Umbra from killing themselves- but it only got progressively worse, until they simply stopped eating.

They stopped doing anything, really- they just sort of... laid there and waited for death. Shaking off the grim memories, Valerie instead listened to what Phantom had to say.

"Wraiths already clinging to him. I don't think he's going to last much longer. I guess there's a chance to help him if we can defeat Umbra here and now... but unless we can do that, the guy's just going to shut himself down." He frowned, a grim expression in his faintly glowing blue eyes. "I thought I felt of a flicker of Umbra's presence today, but once I had got to where I sensed it from, it was long gone. I wonder if it's taunting me."

"Could be." Valerie frowned, finishing off her burger. "It wouldn't exactly be the first time." The sun was setting now, and Valerie frowned, picking her binoculars back up, training them back on Jazz's room. Lucky for her, the girl kept her curtains wide open. She didn't think that Jazz would appreciate being spied on, but as long as she was here at the same time as Umbra, there was always a chance that it could try and make use of her, and she wasn't about to let that happen.

Losing one of his family members might just utterly break Danny, after all. She didn't want to see that happen.

* * *

The aforementioned young adult, meanwhile, let out a big sigh, falling back on her hotel room bed. She had been around Borley all day, asking people if they had seen either Valerie or Danny, and while there were a few who seemed to claim that they had seen the former, she couldn't seem to track any of them down. At the very least, she'd gotten some reassurances that Valerie seemed fine and well fed, but it was a cold comfort. Knowing that they were alive was nice, and knowing that they were well was even better, but the fact that they were this close to her and she still couldn't manage to connect with them was endlessly frustrating.

All she had gotten from her troubles today was some seriously sore feet. Groaning, she stood up, frowning as she reached into her pocket and glanced down at her cell phone. She'd turned it off somewhere before lunch, and hadn't turned it back on since then, and she figured that she probably owed Dani a status update, even if it amounted to basically nothing.

Switching on her cell phone, she hummed a little as she waited for it to start up- why did the start up screen on this thing take so long? Finally, she grinned to herself once it did, moving to dial Dani's number, when it buzzed at her, telling her that she had missed a message.

And then it kept buzzing.

Ten messages, all of them from her parents. Internally, Jazz groaned- had Dani told them after all? And even after she had made her promise and everything- the next time Jazz saw the little squirt, she was going to give her a piece of her mind, that much was for sure. So much for secrecy between sisters.

Not wanting to listen to all ten voice messages that they left her, Jazz figured it would just be quicker to call them. Dialing their number and putting the phone to her ear, she fell back on the bed again, trying to rest her aching feet. The phone was picked up almost right after the first ring.

"Jazz! Finally honey, we've been trying to get in contact with you since lunch!" Her mother's voice came over the phone, and there was a hint of relief in her voice. So Dani probably had said something after all. Well, at least they had only called, and they weren't already on their way here or something.

She just didn't want to disappoint them again.

"Sorry, I had my phone off." Jazz apologized. "I just turned it on now. What's up?"

"Honey you really need to start listening to your voicemail." Maddie lectured her briefly, before dismissing it. There were more serious things that needed to be discussed at the moment, after all. "Jazz honey, we got a call from Dani's teachers that said she wasn't in school today."

"Playing hokey?" Jazz asked, frowning a little. But why was that so important that they desperately needed to call her? She'd never skipped school, but she knew full well that from time to time, Danny had cut class with his friends after entering high school. One of their kids skipping out on school wasn't that new to them, after all.

"Well, that's what Jack and I thought at first too." Maddie said, and Jazz could hear the sound of something snapping closed in the background, and firm click as something was locked. "But we asked her friends, and they said they hadn't heard anything from her either. Finally, your father and I went up to her room and found that she had left us a note. Jazz honey, do you know a place called Borley?"

"B-Borley?" Jazz stammered, the color suddenly draining from her face as she pushed herself upright. Oh she didn't like where this was going. "Yeah, I've heard of it."

"That's where she said she was going. Jazz, your little sister ran away." There was the sound of something else closing in the background now, one that reminded Jazz strongly of the RV. "Jack and I are headed over there right now. The note said something about calling you for more information...?"

Jazz could have slapped herself. She should have remembered that Dani was often prone to rather madcap stunts all of her own- but she didn't think that she had the funds or the means with which to come all the way out to Wisconsin. But then, recalling the way that her parents had spoiled Dani after her brother's disappearance, Jazz had no doubt that she had a good deal of money saved up. And with the right lies and a few forged documents from the school or her parents... well, Jazz was pretty sure nobody would give Dani a second look when she boarded an airplane when she should have been in school.

She was going to have some serious words with that girl when she saw her next. Was she thinking at all? She had very little doubt that in the back of her parent's minds, there was now a creeping worry that Dani was going to vanish just like her older brother had when he was her age. She could hear it in their mother's voice, even over the sound of the Fenton RV roaring to life over the other end of the phone.

"Yes." Jazz sighed finally. "Mom, I came to Borley, Wisconsin, because I heard from a reliable source that Danny and Valerie had been spotted here. They even have a photograph. It's them alright."

"What!?" Maddie blurted out. "Jazz honey, why didn't you say anything sooner? That's wonderful news! Oh Jack!" She tore herself away from the phone to look at her husband. "Jazz says that someone has seen them!"

"What?" Jack asked, all but grabbing the phone from his wife's hands. "Jazz, is that true?" He asked, veering out of the way of a car that apparently was all too unprepared for the barreling metal death trap that was the Fenton RV blazing down the streets of Amity Park.

"Dad, you're driving, give the phone back to mom." Jazz sighed, and after a moment of grumbling, her father passed it back to his wife. "But it's true. I didn't want to call you guys about it just yet because I was worried that I might have missed them. I didn't want to get your hopes up. I'm sorry."

"But you did call Dani?" Maddie asked, a note of annoyance in her voice.

"Yes. I didn't think she would just get up and come here herself though. That was my mistake." Jazz frowned. "Sometimes I forget how devious that girl can be." She shook her head. "Anyways, she must already be here, so I'll head out and go talk to the local police, see if anyone has spotted her. I'm sure she's fine, mom, she's a clever girl. As for Danny and Valerie, I've heard that some people around town have seen Valerie, but I haven't gotten anywhere close to actually trying to track them down."

She decided to hold her tongue as to the circumstances that they might be involved in, and the fact that there was a chillingly familiar series of deaths going on in Borley at the moment. That was something she could discuss with them later, if it came to it. She just hoped her parents hadn't thought to bring any of their ghost tech with them.

"Alright honey, I trust you." Maddie said. "But your father and I are still catching the next flight out there. If you find Dani, I want you to make her stay in your hotel room until we get there, okay?"

"Promise." Jazz said, nodding her head- and then blinked a little when someone knocked on her door. "Actually, mom?" She asked, peering through the peephole. "I think she might have found me. I'm going to let you go now. She's... with a cop."

"Of course." Maddie deadpanned, and Jazz could almost hear her fighting off a headache. "Call us as soon as you get the chance, Jazz. If you can't connect, we're probably already on the plane then."

"Right, got you. Bye mom." She said, hanging up the phone and shoving it in her back pocket, before opening up the door, giving the young officer a bright smile. "Hello, officer!" She said, and then cast a fierce glower down towards the fourteen year old girl, who was very much trying to look anywhere else but her sister's eyes. "Dani."

"So I take it this is yours after all." The police officer said, shaking his head. "Officer Ian Dayes." He introduced himself, offering Jazz a hand to shake, which she took. He was rather young, she noted, probably only in his late twenties- and he looked rather overworked at that. Somehow, considering all that was going on here, she wasn't too surprised. He had bags underneath his dark green eyes and it looked as if his sandy blonde hair could use a bit of brushing.

"That she would be. Not supposed to be here either." Jazz frowned, placing her hands on her hips. "I'm Jasmine Fenton. This is my little sister Dani. I can show you some ID if you need me too."

"No, I think that glower is all the ID I need." Ian remarked, pushing the black haired girl forward a bit. She grumbled a bit, pulling down the hood of her worn light blue hoodie. Briefly, Jazz recognized it as one of Danny's old hoodies, and for the first time in awhile, she was struck by just how much her younger siblings resembled each other.

"I just wanted to help find Danny." Dani said glumly, shoving her hands inside of her pockets, kicking the ground a little in front of her.

"Yeah, well, she found a corpse instead." Ian told Jazz, shaking his head. "I'm sorry, we would have brought her your way a bit earlier, but she refused to tell us anything about her until just a bit ago. She's already given statements to the police and everything, but we took her number in case we need more information from her."

"You found a corpse?" Jazz asked, looking at her sister with disbelief. "The first thing you do after running away from home and coming to a strange city is stumble over a corpse?"

Dani shrugged her shoulders. "I didn't mean to. I was just going around and asking people if they had seen Danny and Valerie, and then I just sort of tripped over the guy. It wasn't that bad."

"Suicide, from the looks of it." Ian reported to Jazz. "So we don't think your little sister is in any danger."

"Thank you for bringing her here, Officer Dayes." Jazz said, giving him a small smile. "I'm sorry if my sister troubled you. My parents said they're coming over on the next flight back, and I'm sure they'll be taking Dani home with them. I'm really sorry about this, from the sound of it, you guys at the police department here are really busy."

"Been reading the papers, huh?" Ian frowned, scratching his head. "Yeah, busy is the world alright. "Adding this body to the count, that's six people who have offed themselves in the past few days. Seven if you count and aborted attempt. But well, I shouldn't trouble you about this and it's no exactly the sort of thing I should be discussing with civilians anyways. I just came to make sure your sister properly met up with you."

"Thank you again." Jazz said, taking Dani by the wrist, and pulling the grumbling girl into her room. "I can handle my sister from here on out."

"Right." Ian nodded his head. "Well, if we need anything from her, although I doubt we will, we'll be in touch." He told her, and with that, he excused himself, heading down the hall. Jazz slowly shut the door behind herself, glowering down at her younger sister.

"You, little miss, have some _explaining_ to do."

* * *

Valerie hadn't been able to spot a rather unwilling Dani being dragged into the hotel where Jazz was staying at from this distance, but Phantom sure as hell had. He was, naturally, currently groaning, having all but fallen over on his back, one hand over his face. He hadn't had a headache in years, not since he had become like this, but he almost felt as if there was one oncoming now.

"You have got to be kidding me."

"How did she even _get _here?" Valerie asked, keeping her binoculars trained on Jazz's room. Sure enough, she eventually spotted the girl heading towards her door, and not long after, Dani joined her in there, and looked as if she was being yelled at. Not that Valerie could blame Jazz, she would have probably done the exact same thing in her situation. "Danny, I don't mean to sound rude, but your little sister can be a handful."

"Trust me, I know." Phantom groaned, forcing himself to sit up. "Let me see those." He said, taking the binoculars from Valerie and looking into the room himself. "Yup, that's Dani alright. Is she wearing one of my old hoodies?" He asked, frowning a little. "I guess she never exactly grew out of her rebellious streak. I guess age doesn't always bring wisdom."

"Danny, if she's anything like you were at that age, then that's to be expected." Valerie snorted. "So, what's the plan now? I don't suspect that Jazz is going to let Dani out of her sight, so watching one of them most likely means watching both of them. I can't believe we missed her though. If she flew in from Amity Park, she must have been here for at least a few hours."

"Remember that time when we spent an hour trying to find Ember in the mall and it turned out we had just barely been missing each other during that time? It's probably like that." Phantom related, setting down the binoculars. "Great. If Dani's here, that probably means soon enough, they'll show up too. And that's something I really don't need- or want."

That was a lie, of course. He did want to see his parents.

He just didn't want them to see him like this.

And not when Umbra was still here.

"The entire Fenton family here, as if it's just one great big reunion!" He said, flinging his hands up into the air. "It's almost like asking Umbra to come and use their souls as his own personal buffet or something. I don't know how we're going to get any work done like this."

"Maybe your parents didn't bring any ghost tech with them?" Valerie offered.

"If it's my parents, they are always bringing ghost tech with them. They have emergency ghost tech stored into the bathroom. Once while I was in the shower, I found a hidden switch in the wall that causes it to fall back into a veritable arsenal." Phantom groaned. "My parents are always prepared for everything, and that's the problem. They'll probably have the Fenton Finder with them, at least. Never leave home without it. If the Specter Deflector picks up my presence as ghostly, I'm willing to bet that all of their other tech does as well."

"And for sure it'll pick up wraiths." Valerie grimaced. "Well, your mother is a competent ghost hunter, at least, but it's also not going to take her long to put two and two together and figure out that what's going on here is the same as what's going on in Amity Park four years ago." She said. "And she might even go so far as to realize we might be connected to it somehow. She's a smart woman."

"And my father is all shoot later, ask questions if he remembers." Phantom groaned, instinctively pulling the hood up on his hoodie. "You know, I always worried that something like this would happen one of these days."

"Maybe if you showed yourself to Jazz, she would help keep your parents away?" Valerie offered. "I'm telling you Danny, it's Jazz. She's the most level headed person in your whole family, I'm sure she would understand."

"No, it's Jazz, the most meddling person in my whole family. She would do everything in her power to bring our family back together while giving me a long lecture on how mom and dad would love me anyways." Phantom rolled his eyes.

"Well, they might." Valerie pointed out. "You don't really know that, Phantom. I told you as much four years ago, but you didn't seem to want to listen to me either. You went so far as to throw away your real name."

"I just... I just don't want to take the chance that they wouldn't." Phantom admitted finally. "Look at me, Valerie. I'm clearly not human." He told her, glowing blue eyes meeting her. "I glow, I can walk through walls, I don't sleep, I barely need to eat, I'm cold as a block of ice... and I only have half a soul. My image is distorted in anything halfway reflective, and in photos and videos of me. I don't think they're going to look at me and think that I'm still really in here."

Valerie winced. He was probably right- the Fentons did sometimes jump to conclusions, and they were pretty enthusiastic about hunting ghosts. "You don't know that." She said finally.

"No I don't." Phantom admitted finally. "But what I do know is that if they realize that the same spirit that possessed Vlad and made all of those horrible things happen in Amity Park is here, they'll go after him. And that will put them in the line of fire. I don't want to see anything bad happening to my parents- I know that's something you can understand."

"I do." Valerie said after a long moment, shuddering a little as she forced back the memory of that dreaded phone call. She had run out of the house right after it, and hadn't stopped until she had come back to her apartment, desperately searching around for her father, as if it had just been some kind of cruel prank.

Thanks to Umbra and what happened to Danny, she hadn't even been able to attend his funeral. Not Ember's, either.

"We won't let anything happen to them, Danny." Valerie promised, placing a hand on his knee, giving him a smile. "I won't let anything happen to them. They might not be able to see you like this, but if it keeps them safe and you out of their sights, I'll show myself to them if I need to. I can do that much for you, and seeing me might just reassure them that we're alright."

"You don't have to do that." Phantom shook his head. "Valerie, you're tough. You're a wicked shot. But you're still only human. You've gotten into close calls before."

"Shut up, so have you. Don't give me any of that noble hero pushing you out of the way bullcrap." She rolled her eyes. "I'm not some damsel in distress, and I'm not going to just sit down and die if I get into trouble. You can trust me."

"I know." Phantom said finally, meeting her eyes. "Sorry. I just... sometimes I don't know how I should feel. What would you tell them? I mean, about me, about us, about what we've been doing this whole time?"

"I'd tell them that you're safe and alive." Valerie said, placing a hand on his cheek. "It's mostly true, at least. I'll tell them the honest truth about what we've been doing. And I'll tell them we're not going to stop, we're very sorry, but we're not going to stop until we've finally won. We've come too far into this to do anything else."

"So you won't tell them about this... _whatever _I've become?" Phantom asked, carefully pulling Valerie's hand away from his face and entwining it in his own.

"Not unless you want me to." Valerie told him, closing her fingers about his hand.

"I don't think I do." He admitted. "If anyone, ever, is going to tell them about it, it'll be me. But I don't know if I can do it." He frowned. "I just want to be normal again, Valerie."

"I know." She said, nodding her head, scooting closer to him. "We'll find a way, I promise, Danny. And I promise that I won't let anything happen to your family. Seeing you in pain was bad enough."

"I know." Phantom echoed, a faint smile on his face as Valerie placed her head on his shoulder. "Your fries are going to get cold if you don't eat them."

"That's okay." She said. "Just give me a moment. We don't have enough time like this anymore."

And somehow, she got the feeling that things were going to get out of hand very quickly. It was as if a perfect storm was rolling in, and one way or another, she felt as if this would be the last time they would ever face Umbra.

She just hoped that the storm was in their favor.

* * *

_Valerie knew that it was just a nightmare, and what she saw before her wasn't really real. This had already happened, it was the past, and the Danny that was by her side now wasn't suffering in pain anymore._

_The nightmare happened every so often, usually when they began to close in on Umbra. As much as she valued it as a good sign because of this fact, it was also nothing short of torture, having to watch the person she cared about most in the world go through this kind of pain, over and over again, and each time, she was unable to do anything about it._

_Everything was just as it had been back then. Her body moved, acting on instinct, blasting away the monstrous spirit that was causing Danny pain with one of the Fenton's heavy duty ectoweapons. The thing dropped him like a cold stone, and vanished, hissing at Valerie as it did so._

_And she thought she had done it, that her friend was safe, and so she had begun to making her way towards him._

_It was the single most terrifying thing she had ever seen in her life, and she had just opened fire at a monster with no head and a gaping mouth in the middle of it's chest. He didn't scream, he couldn't scream, it looked like pain was overriding every single one of his senses, too much for him to even let out a sound. But she could tell, she knew it in her bones that he was in massive pain. It was all she could do to keep calling out his name, because there was no way that she would be able to get close to him._

_It exploded outwards in a fury of energy, blazing bright green wisps that seemed to be fighting both to get out and in her friend's body. It was the same color as the ectoplasm that the Fenton's used in their weapons, and it had changed the silvery color that had been leaking out from Danny ever since Umbra had started to eat his soul, to the same acid green color. Every time she got close, it lashed out at her, and Valerie had to flinch away, as if it were trying to absorb her in order to compensate for what was missing._

_She could just stand there, calling his name until her voice went raw, watching as his black hair faded into a stark white and his skin grew paler. It seemed as if it had been hours since it started, but in reality, it was likely a much shorter time than that, and finally, Danny collapsed on the ground, the roaring green blaze that had been surrounding him dimming and changing in color so that it was now just a faint silver haze around his body._

_She was by his side the moment she could, taking his pulse. For a moment, she thought that he didn't have one, that she had lost him too, had lost everyone, but then she found it, and her shoulders slumped. It was faint, far too faint for her liking and his heartbeat was the same, slow, much too slow, his breaths much too shallow, too infrequent. Everything in Valerie's bones screamed that something had gone wrong, that everything had gone wrong, she knew it to her very core._

_"Danny!" She remembered pleading with him, trying to rouse him from his supposed slumber. When he came too with a gasp, there had been a flicker of green in his eyes- before they had settled back to their usual blue._

_But wrong, different, so dim that they appeared to be dead, a faint glow to them just like there was to the rest of his body._

_"V-Valerie?" He stammered, meeting eyes with her, his body shaking. He was cold, so cold, why was he so cold? There was something wrong with his voice too, a distortion, an echo, a wrongness that she didn't want to hear, but forced herself to, not wanting to close down and deny anything in front of her. This was still Danny, she reassured herself, the same boy you've always known._

_Danny seemed to notice that there was something wrong with his voice too, and combined with the look on her own face- one that she could see now, in this dream, strange enough, a mixture of horror and deep worry for her friend. He took a shaking look at his hand, noting that it was glowing, before he placed it slowly over his own heart, feeling how slow it was, and noticing how extremely warm Valerie seemed to be in comparison to him._

_"Valerie, what's wrong with me?" He whispered._

_And she didn't know an answer._

* * *

"Valerie!" She felt Phantom's hand on her shoulder, rousing her to awareness. Groaning, she turned her head towards the window, noticing that there were dim rays of sun now coming up. After she'd eaten, Phantom had told her to get some sleep and leave the rest of the night's duties to him. He didn't need to sleep, after all, and Valerie, being very much still human, did.

It wasn't much of a place they had found, an old abandoned office building that nobody really came to. But electricity and plumbing still ran through it, and it wasn't that bad once she had pulled out her camping equipment. She couldn't always sleep in a real bed, especially not when they needed to stay in one place for a long time, such as they did when they were hunting Umbra.

"Danny?" She grumbled, getting up. "Is it time to get to work?" She asked, fussing with her hair, trying to get it out of her face.

"Yeah. Nothing happened last night. I didn't even sense Umbra or any wraiths. He might have moved on already." Phantom said, a hint of hope in his voice- but they both knew that he seriously doubted that was the case.

Valerie's dreams were proof enough.

"Did you have the dream again?" Phantom asked, helping the groggy girl get to her feet.

"Yes." Valerie said simply, grabbing her change of clothes and started making for the bathroom. The lights dimly flickered to life, and she splashed her face with water, getting rid of whatever residual sleepiness that she had left. Grabbing her comb, she ran it through her hair, making herself a bit more presentable.

"That's what I was afraid to hear." Phantom said, heaving a sigh. Then after a moment of seeming resignation, he caught Valerie's eyes, a flash of determination appearing in them this time, a hint of emotion dancing across his otherwise dead eyes.

"Valerie." He told her, his voice firm and certain.

"We're going to finish it this time. I'm tired of all this."

"Me too." Valerie said, locking eyes with him, giving him a sharp nod. "This is the last time. One way or another, we're going to bring Umbra down."

Then maybe, finally, they could both go _home_.


	6. Someone Threw a Wrench

Author's Note: Yo, chapter six is finally done! Sorry for the wait. I love writing chapters that start to set up things for later, they are my favorite part of any story (aside from revelation scenes, those are pretty fun too). Thanks to those who have been reading, and especially to those who have been reviewing! You guys are great, I love hearing your feedback!

Next chapter promises to be one hell of a ride if everything goes as I think it should.

Danny Phantom does not belong to me, but Talia and Umbra do.

* * *

**Dark Angel**

Chapter Six: Someone Threw a Wrench

* * *

Maddie was certain that the poor rental car employee hadn't been expecting to be confronted by two rather frazzled looking parents in jumpsuits late at night, and she couldn't help but feel a small amount of sympathy for the woman as she had passed the keys to their rental car over. In any other situation, Maddie would have apologized, but she was hard pressed for time now, her heart pounding in her chest as they drove out of Borley Airport, and made their way into the main city.

Her Danny was here, that was what Jazz had said. Somewhere in this sleeping city, her son was here. At least, she hoped so- the last time they had gotten word on either of them, Valerie in this case, they had skipped town just before they had arrived. Someone had seen them leaving on the bus, in fact, or they had seen Valerie at least. For awhile, it caused her to think that Valerie and Danny had split up- or perhaps, even worse, that something horrible had happened to Danny.

But Jazz seemed certain that someone had seen both of them, together! And that made Maddie's heart race with joy, her anger at Dani for sneaking away from home and doing something so dangerous almost slipping away from her. She couldn't believe that girl though, honestly! When Maddie had gotten that call from her school, she was filled with dread, as if she was following in the footsteps of her older brother, who she looked so much like. She didn't know what she would do if that was the case, if two of her children slipped away from her, right under her fingers, and she knew that Jack would feel the same way.

And she was concerned for Valerie too, of course! Why, the girl had lost her father and her best friend, all in the span of two days! She couldn't imagine what that would have done to her psyche, and she hoped that the girl was well. She wasn't a member of their family, but she was over at their house so often that she might as well have been. Ember, was too, although they had been seeing less of her in the months leading up to her untimely and outright bizarre suicide. There were rumors that someone had heard her music and had passed her name on to someone in a reputable agency, and that she might get signed any day now.

And then she killed herself.

She had been signed on, and she had been called and given the news that very same day. It was only a few hours after that, that Ember set her house on fire and had locked herself in her closet with her guitar. Nobody understood it, and she understood Damon's suicide even less. How on Earth could he ever even think of leaving Valerie alone, when he was such a kind and caring parent? It had always struck everyone as unnatural.

Of course, it wasn't until Vlad had come to them with a story of something horrible and vague memories of strange things, was Maddie able to piece the story together. Umbra, an ancient spirit of despair, a soul eater from times long past, one that she had heard about in whispered and hushed rumors in the paranormal community, as if they were afraid of drawing such calamity towards them. Umbra had been possessing Vlad, and she had never even noticed, even though he was a family friend! But what the man did say he remembered last, before being freed of Umbra was strange, and struck a deep chord with Maddie- he could have sworn that he had seen Danny and Valerie there, before he had blacked out entirely.

It gave Maddie the uneasy feeling that somehow her son and Valerie had gotten mixed up in all of this business- a feeling which had grown once she noticed that her lab had been broken into, and many pieces of anti ghost weaponry had been stolen. She didn't need the police to tell her that the fingerprints had been Valerie's, she had already guessed that much herself.

It was part of why she had been looking for them so desperately.

Jazz had texted her the address and room number of her hotel, and they found it easily enough. They explained the whole situation to the man at the counter, who acknowledged that a police officer had brought up a short, black haired girl to the room number in question earlier that evening. He found them a room on the same floor, and had someone take up their bags, and gave them a spare key to Jazz's room, after a bit of convincing.

Jazz let the both of them in easily enough, and Dani nearly fled to the bathroom when Jack and Maddie entered the room, but her sister stopped her, forcing the squirming girl to confront her parents and apologize to them for worrying them.

"I didn't mean to cause you guys to worry, it's just when I heard from Jazz that Danny and Valerie might be here, I got so excited and I thought I could help her look for them!" Dani apologized, pleading her case to her parents. "I knew you guys would be worried, which is why I left the note! I wasn't planning on running away forever or anything." She said, correctly guessing at what had caused them so much initial panic. Danny and Valerie had only left a short note that 'they would be fine', and nothing else, no other details at all.

"That's not the point young lady." Maddie said firmly, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "The point is that what you did was extremely dangerous. You're a minor, only fourteen years old! Something could have happened to you on your way here, someone could have tried to hurt you... and what's this I hear about you getting brought in here by a police officer after you found a _body?_"

"That's pretty much self explanatory, actually." Dani couldn't help but quip, flinching a little when her mother's fearsome gaze deepened. "I'm sorry, it was dumb and stupid of me, and I promise I'll never do anything like it again!" She said. "I just miss Danny."

At that, Maddie's gaze softened, and she put her hand on Dani's head. "I know honey, we all do. But you're still in trouble." She told her, pointing a finger at her. "You aren't leaving Jazz's sight until we leave here, and when we do, you are grounded for the rest of the month, missy. No Internet, no TV, now hanging out with your friends at the Nasty Burger."

"But mom!" Dani whined, her blue eyes going wide.

"But nothing, Dani, you listen to your mother." Jack told her, finalizing the punishment. "You had us worried sick." His gaze turned towards Jazz then, a tight frown on his lips. "And I'm not sure how I feel about Jazz withholding information from us about Danny and Valerie, either."

"I just didn't want to falsely get your guys hopes up again. If I missed them, I still would have called and told you." Jazz said. "I spent all day looking for them, which was why my phone was off, and I barely found a trace of them. The people who saw Valerie at least seemed to think that she was doing well, though. Nobody else aside from Sam, the person who contacted me about this in the first place, has really seen Danny though." She said, shaking her head.

"Oh but, she did have a photo!" She blurted out, and then winced internally, recalling how she had planned on not showing the odd photograph to her parents. And now of course, her parents would want to see it.

"Really honey?" Maddie's voice contained an unhidden note of excitement. "Oh, please, show it to us! But are you sure that nobody else had seen Danny?" She asked, frowning a little, finding that odd. It was the same way the last time they had gotten a tip- only Valerie had been seen, and they had simply assumed that Danny had been with her. The fact that at least one person had seen Danny this time, however, got her into higher spirits.

"Yeah, sure, just let me go get it." Jazz told them, snatching the picture from the inside of her dresser. "The person who took it developed it herself, so she said the shot got a bit blurry by accident." She told them, unsure as to why she was lying through her teeth here. Sam hadn't said anything like that, she had just shrugged and told her that was how it came out, and that her dark room work wasn't at fault for it. Somehow, Jazz was inclined to believe her.

Maddie took the photograph from her, and the joy on her face quickly gave way to confusion. There was Valerie, as clear as day, she could recognize the girl anywhere. But standing next to her was a blurry figure, the boy's hair a shade of white so pure it reminded her of snow. Her eyes narrowed as she studied the blurry boy, quickly realizing that this was no bad camera work, but rather some kind of supernatural effect at work.

"Are you sure this was Danny, honey?" Maddie asked, sounding hesitant.

"Sam, who saw him in person, seemed pretty convinced at least." Jazz told her, taking the photograph back, suddenly regretting showing it to her parents even more. She knew that look in her mother's eyes, that glimmer she got when it retained to things paranormal. She also knew that she didn't like it. "I don't have any reason to think otherwise, bleach job aside."

Jazz seemed sure, and to be honest, Maddie wanted to think so as well. But she didn't like the supernatural element that the photograph held, it made her rather ill at ease. Why was it solely concentrated around her son? Again, Maddie was reminded under the bizarre circumstances under which both the teens had vanished, and couldn't help that there was a lot more going on here than they could even suspect. After all, even with all of the horrible things that had happened in Amity Park, to people they were close to, there was no way that Valerie and Danny would have ever run away from home underneath normal circumstances.

Something had happened, and if Maddie didn't miss her guess, that something had a lot to do with Umbra.

She would discuss all of this with Jack later, but for now, Maddie didn't want to disturb the children, and instead, she smiled at Jazz, nodding her head. "That's great news then, sweetie! This is the best break that we've had in years, so hopefully something will come out of this. Do you think that I could meet this Sam girl? I'd like to talk to her in person about what she saw."

"Um, sure." Jazz blinked, frowning a little. Her mother wasn't telling her something, and Jazz didn't like that one bit, not when it was coupled with that earlier gleam in her eyes. "I can try and see if she would be okay with that. At a more reasonable hour, of course. Speaking of that, maybe you two should get some sleep?" She suggested. "It is pretty late, and I doubt we'll find anything even if we go looking now."

"That is true." Jack said after a moment, letting out a loud yawn. "What say you and I turn in now Maddie, so we can get up bright and early tomorrow morning to meet this Sam person and to look for Danny and Valerie?" He asked her, putting a hand on his wife's shoulder.

"Yes, that sounds like a good idea." Maddie nodded her head, feeling a bit tired herself, she had to admit. "Well then, girls, your father and I are going to turn in for the night, and I hope the both of you stay put. Especially you, Dani." She said, giving her youngest daughter a long, hard look.

"Don't worry, I don't plan on going anywhere." Dani told them, and she wasn't lying this time. "I'll see you guys in the morning. I'm sorry for all the trouble, I really am. I just got a little carried away."

"I'll say." Jack nodded his head, but then grinned, ruffling his daughter's hair. "But we just worry about you because we love you, Dani. Now get some rest, it's way past your bedtime little missy!"

"Yeah, okay." Dani grinned, nodding her head. She was a bit tired, now that she thought about it. "I think I'll turn in too, if that's okay with you, Jazz."

"That's just fine. You can take the bed, Dani, and I'll be fine on the couch." Jazz told her, before bidding her parents goodnight, and watching them as they headed to their own room. "We'll work something out about you and a room tomorrow, maybe I'll upgrade to a room with two beds. For tonight, don't worry about it though."

"Are you sure?" Dani frowned a little, looking a bit hesitant. "I don't want to put you out, sis."

"I'm sure." Jazz nodded her head. After all, she wasn't sure how much sleeping she was going to be doing tonight. There was still something bugging Jazz about all of this- and it had a lot to do with that gleam in her mother's eyes.

* * *

The hour was very early in the morning when Jazz stirred from her couch. As she expected, she couldn't sleep, her thoughts drifting around in her mind too much for her to do so. Finally, she let out a quiet sigh, and grabbed her purse and room key, silently slipping on her shoes. Careful so as to not wake Dani, Jazz slipped out of the room, pausing to silently smile as her little sister turned in her sleep, mumbling something about fudge, and then quietly shut the door behind her.

She didn't know that they were being watched, rather up close at that. Invisible to all the world, Phantom was sitting perched above their windowsill, crouched on the wall as if it were as easy to sit on as a park bench. "Ghost Boy to Red, do you copy?" He said, speaking into the modified walkie talkie.

"I copy you, Ghost Boy. This is Red." Valerie responded. After her nightmare, she hadn't been able to get back to sleep. Shortly after that, one of their bugs had spotted the Fentons entering the hotel that Jazz was staying at, and Phantom had left to go determine how that would sort out himself. Valerie had gone on Umbra duty, searching for an trace of the spirit. It turned out that he had claimed another victim earlier in the night, another in a growing chain of bodies, she thought.

"Jazz left the hotel room." Phantom told her. "I'm going to pursue her. What's your status?"

"No sign of Umbra." Valerie told him. "Took care of some wraiths on the east side of town, though, so he's been active." She told him. "What's your plan for Jazz?"

"I'll figure that out when I come to it." Phantom told her. "Heading into the hotel itself. Ghost Boy out." He said, switching of the walkie talkie and slipping invisibly into the hotel room. He paused, just for a moment, smiling over at Dani, who was fast asleep, curled up in the sheets of her bed. He lingered for a moment, brushing a stray hair out of her face, only to pull his hand back when she seemed to shiver at his cold touch. He slowly closed his hand, a hint of sadness in his eyes, before he turned back to the matter at hand.

He hurried out of the room, phasing through the door, and caught up with Jazz just as she got in the elevator. Slipping invisibly in beside her, Phantom frowned a little as he caught the tired bags underneath her eyes, and the worry that was clear on her face. She was deep in thought about something, Phantom knew her well enough to know this, and he was pretty sure that the source of her worries was him- and he couldn't help but feel guilty about that.

Maybe he should do as Valerie had suggested, and talk to her. But not here, not in this place. Somewhere else. For now, Phantom simply contented himself to stand invisibly by her side, unseen by Jazz.

Jazz frowned a little, a sudden shiver running down her spine as she got into the elevator, and rubbed her arms a little. The air conditioning in this elevator must have been busted, she thought, realizing that it was chilly enough in here to see her own breath. When the elevator arrived in the lobby, she didn't feel the cold chill leave her, and she grumbled a little as she headed towards the door, unaware as to the source of the chill.

She wasn't sure what she planned to do exactly. She knew very well that it would do her no good to look for Danny and Valerie right now- most likely they were both fast asleep somewhere, if indeed, they were in the city at all. Finally, she settled on going up the street to where she had seen a Nasty Burger, and grab a bite to eat, to see if maybe that could clear her mind. She wished she had thought to bring a jacket though, she hadn't realized that it would be this nippy out! Well, this _was _Wisconsin, after all, and winter hadn't entirely left the city yet, so she supposed it was to be expected.

She blew some warm air out onto her hands, rubbing them together as she made her way down the street. Maybe getting a bite to eat would be the right idea anyways, her stomach was grumbling in protest. As she spotted the glowing sign of the Nasty Burger, that indicated that this franchise was open twenty four seven, she smiled a bit sadly, recalling that the one back at home was a frequent hangout for Danny and his friends. She headed into the door, casting a glance towards the restaurant's seating, almost hoping against hope to see either Danny or Valerie there- but of course, they weren't.

Instead she headed towards the register, smiling at the man who was working there. He gave her a bit of an odd look, but she shrugged that off as being surprised to see a young woman out and about at this time of night. "Can I get a double cheeseburger?" Jazz asked. "Maybe some fries?" She added after a moment.

"And for your friend?" The cashier asked, glancing briefly behind Jazz, causing her eyebrows to furrow. She didn't have a friend with her- had someone been following her this whole time!?

"Just some fries." A male voice spoke up, echoing strangely. But the reason Jazz froze was not because the voice was strange to her, but because she _knew _that voice. It was a bit older, the person who spoke with it had clearly gone through puberty since the last time she had seen him, but she would know that voice anywhere. It was sheer force of will that kept her from spinning around to look at him, and she simply smiled, nodding at the cashier.

"Yes, some fries too please. Two orders of fries." Jazz paused then, considering her next words, as she pulled open her purse, taking out her wallet. "Are you sure you don't want a burger too, Danny?" She asked him, almost hesitating before she let his name slip from her lips. She didn't need to look behind her to know who this person was, she already knew in every fiber of her being that this was her little brother.

"Just fries are fine." Phantom said after a moment, looking down at his sister. The cashier gave him something of an odd look, off put by the presence of the white haired boy and his worn out clothes.

Jazz smiled and paid the cashier, and forced herself to stand silently without looking back, worried that if she did, Danny would simply vanish into thin air. She went to take the tray from the man when he came back with it, but instead, pale hands reached out from behind her, and took it instead. Now she did look over, and she had to bite her tongue a little as she finally saw her brother for the first time in four years with her own eyes- and was more than a little surprised by what she got.

The white hair, she had expected, after seeing that photograph. The worn out clothing she had expected too, after all, he was a runaway teen living his life on the road, in the end. What Jazz hadn't expected, was how pale his skin had gotten, nor his eyes- they were the same blue that they had ever been, but they appeared dead, no sign of life in them at all. Her breath caught in her throat, or it did, at least, until he gave her a soft smile, motioning towards the back of the restaurant with his head.

"Let's go find a seat." Phantom said, heading towards the back of the restaurant. "We've got a lot of catching up to do, I'm sure." He told her, sliding into a booth. Jazz slid into the seat across from him, taking her food when it was handed to her, unable to think of anything to say, in spite of all the questions that were running through her mind at the moment. Instead, she simply unwrapped her cheeseburger, taking a bite out of it, chewing it thoughtfully.

"It's a bit much to take in, huh?" Phantom tried to smile at her again, taking his fries and twirling one between two fingers for a few moment, before he set them down again. He just wasn't hungry, and with no taste buds, he couldn't even work up the enthusiasm to pretend to eat. "Look Jazz, I need to have a serious chat with you." He said then, pushing all pretenses aside, and getting straight to the point. "All of you need to go home."

Jazz swallowed, setting her cheeseburger back down, giving her little brother a sharp glare. "That's some demand from someone who ran away from home." She told him, wiping her mouth and giving him a deep frown. "Aren't you going to tell me anything, Danny? You seem to have known that I was in town this entire time, given how easily you managed to seek me out." She observed.

"We've been keeping tabs on you ever since you entered town." Phantom told her, pushing away the fries now. "Look Jazz, I don't have words to mince with you right now, but all four of you are in danger just by being here. You need to convince everyone to go home, before you all get yourselves killed."

"And why would that happen?" Jazz asked, frowning deeply. "You aren't giving me anything to go off of here, Danny. Does it have anything to do with all of the weird deaths around here?" She asked, keeping her voice low. "Just like back in Amity Park. You're lucky that mom hasn't noticed that yet, because she took one look at that weird photograph that Sam girl took of you, and she got that gleam in her eyes. And looking at you..." She said, her eyes locking with his, narrowing as she noticed for the first time that there seemed to be a very dim glow to them. "I think I can understand why. Aren't you going to tell me _anything_?" She asked again.

"I would rather avoid it, if I could." Phantom admitted. "But yes, it does. It's not like Valerie and I are behind it or anything." He told her after a moment, rubbing the back of his neck and glancing away from her. "More like we're trying to stop it. If you guys are here, you're going to become targets, and neither of us want that. We've got enough to deal with over here without the four of you snooping around town trying to find us. We don't really want to _be _found."

"So we've noticed." Jazz said, taking a bite out of one of her fries. "But that's not _good enough_ for me, Danny. You know I don't believe in all of that paranormal bullshit that mom and dad do."

Phantom snorted at that, shaking his head. "You probably should, Jazz." He confessed to her. "Because I stopped being entirely human four years ago."

"Oh please." Jazz rolled her eyes, swallowing her fry. "I don't believe _that _one bit." She told him- although this was a lie. It was his eyes, more than anything else, that filled her with doubt.

"Suit yourself. I can prove it though." Phantom said simply, watching as Jazz quirked a brow. Casting a glance back towards the cashier, who had seemed to have gone back to his crossword puzzle, Phantom looked once more back towards Jazz. Holding up his hand, he turned it invisible in front of her, causing his older sister's eyes to widen, color draining from her face.

"You... that can't..." Jazz's mouth worked, even as Phantom's arm came back into sight, and against her better judgement, she reached out to touch it, as if to find out whether it was still real or not. She flinched a little, however, when she noticed just how cold her brother's hand was. "Jesus, Danny." She whispered. "What happened to you?"

"I'd rather not go into details." Phantom said after a moment, shaking his head. "But you and everyone else need to live this city. It's a miracle that it hasn't gone after you already."

"What?" Jazz asked, befuddlement clear on her features. "It? What do you mean by it, Danny? What's going on?"

"What did this to me." Phantom told her simply, taking his hand back from her. "I can't come home Jazz, not until I see this thing through. Valerie and I promised each other. And... well, if I still can't have this problem solved even after I see to it that what did this is gone forever, then I don't think I'll be coming back home anytime soon, if ever." He confessed to her, shaking his head. "Mom and dad _can't know_ about this. Please don't tell them about me."

"But..." Jazz stammered, shaking her head. "Why would it even matter? They're your parents Danny, and they love you." She implored him. "I don't think they would reject you because of... because of this, whatever all this is." She said. "And if you're so worried about us being in danger, what about the two of you? Aren't the both of you in danger as well?" She asked him. "I can't just leave you here, Danny, not when you tell me something like that. I can get them to send Dani back home if you're so worried but-"

"That's not good enough." Phantom shook his head. "Valerie and I have been tailing this thing for four years. We've already accepted the consequences. Besides that, I'm annoyingly hard to kill, as it turns out." He snorted a little. "I'm sorry, Jazz, that's just how it's going to be. At best, I hope to come home sometime, and at _worst_, well... this will probably be our _last _meeting. We don't intend to let you find us again."

"Please don't say that, Danny." Jazz implored him. "Whatever is wrong with you, we can help you, we can fix you, we can-"

"Give me back the missing piece of my soul?" Phantom finished for her, arching an eyebrow. "Because I don't think anyone can do _that_, Jazz."

"Your soul?" Jazz asked, not understanding what he was saying to her- at least, she didn't want to. But as she looked at those dead eyes again, somehow she knew that her brother was missing something that he should otherwise have, something that she and all other humans possessed. It showed in those dead blue eyes, devoid of almost any emotion, a sure sign that there was something unnatural and inhuman about her brother, and as much as she hated to admit it-

They kind of _frightened _her.

"So you do understand." Phantom said, leaning back in his seat a bit, and Jazz quickly came to understand that he had realized what she was thinking. "Ah, you don't need to apologize, Jazz. It's true, I'm not denying it. I lack a basic part of myself that all humans have. I'm scared too." He admitted after a moment. "I would love to come back home with you all, to put all this Umbra business behind me, but I can't do that. I can't put mom and dad through this. I didn't want to put you through it either, but I thought you would be sensible enough to listen to me and help keep all of you safe. That's all I want you know, to see the four of you out of harm's way."

"Danny, it's not like that." Jazz shook her head. "It's just... you're telling me that everything that mom and dad prattled on about was _real_? And that you're what... that my brother is missing part of his soul and can turn invisible? What am I supposed to _do_ with this information?" She asked him. "And you don't want me to tell mom and dad about it, either. Danny, they _love _you, I _promise _you they wouldn't care the least bit about any of this. You don't have to do this, not you or Valerie- it's dangerous, and you should just forget about it and come home."

"And a lot more people would die." Phantom noted, shaking his head. "I can't do that Jazz. I'm human enough for that still. And as for mom and dad..." He shook his head. "Even if that's the case, Jazz, this will hurt them too much." He said finally. "They're ghost hunters, and whatever I am, I'm closer to a ghost than I am a human. It's their job to get rid of evil ghosts and spirits, and I'm not sure they could see me as a human. And even if, as you seem to think, they would love and accept me anyways, they would still have a hard time seeing me as anything other than something ghost afflicted. It would be too painful for them. I can't put them through that."

"You're just assuming things." Jazz told him, although she knew deep down that he might be right. It might be better if her parents didn't know about what her brother had become- and she was sure that they would understand it far more than she did. That knowledge, she thought, most likely wouldn't actually help matters one bit.

"I might be. But I would rather not take that risk." Phantom gave her a sad smile, standing up. "It would be better if you all just remembered me as I was, rather than as I am, in the event I never do end up coming home. You can tell them I'm alive if you want, I guess that's at least somewhat true." He frowned a little, scratching his cheek. "But go _home_, Jazz. Or back to college or whatever, wherever it is you are right now. All four of you. Please."

"Danny, please-" Jazz began, but was cut off my her brother, who shook his head, giving her a sad look.

"It's not really Danny anymore. Danny Fenton probably died four years ago. I go by Phantom these days." He told her. "You shouldn't worry so much, Jazz. Valerie and I have this whole thing all sorted out by now. We'll be fine, we'll live, we'll survive. Maybe one day Valerie will come back to Amity Park, who knows?" He shrugged his shoulders, backing away a little. "I'll say it now, because I don't know if I'll ever have another chance to say it but- I do love you, Jazz. You're my big sister, as cheesy at that sounds. Look after Dani, okay? Make sure she doesn't get into half as much trouble as I did around her age."

"Danny!" Jazz stood up, getting ready to race after him- but he wasn't there anymore, he had just simply vanished into thin air, leaving behind only one very startled cashier, asking her why she had shouted, and if everything was alright. Sighing, Jazz only gave him a small smile, slumping back down in her booth, gazing across at his uneaten french fries.

What the hell was she supposed to do _now?_

* * *

The sun had barely come out that morning, but Maddie was wasting no time in getting to work. In all honesty, she hadn't gotten a lot of sleep last night, finding herself instead staying up well past her husband, going over her research that she had gathered in the days learning about Umbra. It wasn't all that much, to be honest, it was very hard to gather information on such an elusive and ancient spirit, but what she had was the stuff of nightmares. To be honest, she wasn't sure why she had started to look at it- but somehow she felt as if she _should_.

Umbra was an ancient spirit, said to be the very manifestation of despair and sorrow. Because of that, the spirit could never be at peace, and by it's very nature, would continue to absorb the souls of those who crossed it's path. It would taken on a host, infiltrate a village, or a town, or a city, and would then proceed to eat it's fill there, until it decided it was time to move on. It would then take it's hosts soul with it, ending the chain of suicides that the theft of the souls would prompt, and move to the next place, where it would continue to eat.

Not a ghost, exactly, Umbra was never alive to begin with, but was rather a spirit- though, not one, Maddie suspected, that had been created naturally. Some sort of black magic, something gone wrong... the possibilities were endless. But that did mean that unlike other spirits, such as Clockwork, the spirit of time, it could be defeated, destroyed- although no one had ever managed. Nobody had ever even seen the spirit in it's true form for over a thousand years, and the description was a bit nauseating. It was the description of the smell that got to Maddie the most, the stench of rotting corpses that clung to it.

When Umbra possessed a host, it was able to tap into the host's mind, disguising it's possession that way and acting as if there was nothing wrong. Over time, thanks to this, the spirit had gotten smarter, and was able to plot and plan even when it was not possessing a host. At least, that was what the records that she had indicated. And when she looked for them, she could find them, cases in which it appeared as if Umbra was involved- other places like Amity Park.

There was one that had always stood out to her, a small town in Arkansas called Winstonville. It had happened six years ago, and had ended with a murder, instead of a final suicide- and that had always struck Maddie as being very odd. She had a feeling there was more to that story, and had flown out there to ask people about it, but people simply refused to talk about it. All she got from the townsfolk was the name of the murdered journalist- 'Elizabeth Hawthorne', they said, a red head woman who was survived by a twins sister. When she asked after the twin sister, they simply shrugged their shoulders and told her that she had left town not long after, and Maddie had never been able to track her down.

There was something key there, Maddie thought, something key that would help take Umbra down, once and for all. That was what her instincts were telling her, and they had never failed her yet.

When morning came, and Maddie checked in on her daughter, she noticed right away that she seemed to be dwelling on something- and that she hadn't gotten much sleep last night. She laughed it off, simply saying that the couch was a bit uncomfortable, but Maddie knew it was more than that. Still, she didn't bother Jazz about it- she would tell her when she was ready, she knew. That was the sort of person her eldest daughter was, after all.

She had followed up with her on wanting to meet Sam, and after a moment's hesitation, as if again, there was something Jazz wanted to tell her, but had decided not to, she had called the girl up. A meeting was arranged for early that morning, so as to waste as little time as possible, and they were to meet at a goth bookstore, of all places, called the Skulk and Lurk, which Maddie had been given the address and directions too. She had split up with the rest of her family then- Jack would be going to look for Danny in one direction, and Jazz and Dani would take another direction, both of them going together.

Maddie found the Skulk and Lurk easily enough, pausing for a moment to note that it was decorated on the outside with a very familiar flower to her. There was a woman outside, watering them, a bit of stray red hair escaping from her bun. She glanced over as Maddie approached, quirking her eye briefly at the hazmat suit, but she apparently chose not to comment on it.

"You must be Mrs. Fenton. I was told Sam would be meeting you here." The woman spoke, and she rolled her eyes briefly. "I keep reminding her that the bookstore isn't her personal meeting place, but she seems to forget. I'm Talia Vinson, the owner. Technically, we're not open yet, but you can go on inside if you like. Sam's waiting for you in the back."

"Oh, thank you." Maddie said, giving her a small smile. "I'm sorry for all of the trouble, Talia." She apologized. "I just heard that she might have some information about my missing son and his friend. I hope I haven't put you out."

"Not at all." Talia shook her head. "I would be worried too, if I had a son who vanished. I heard a little bit about it from Sam already. I hope you find them."

"Yes, I hope so as well." Maddie nodded her head, before finally casting her eyes at the blood red roses growing in the pots on either side of the entrance. "Blood blossoms. Are you trying to ward off evil spirits, Talia?"

"What with what's been going on around in Borley for the past few days, I don't see what the harm could be." Talia said simply, righting her watering can and giving Maddie an assessing look. "But then, I've always more or less have been growing them. You could say that it's a hobby. I enjoy looking into the supernatural properties of plants. Paranormal botany, you could say."

"I'm a paranormal scientist myself." Maddie told her, a small smile appearing on her face. "Your blood blossoms are well taken care of. I hear they're very hard to grow. Alas, I've never had much of a green thumb, so I've never been able to successfully grow any myself."

"Ah, that explains the jumpsuit." Talia noted, seemingly either unaware or ignoring the fact that her own pseudo-Victorian attire would raise just as many eyebrows as well. "Well yes, gardening has always been my speciality. But I believe you have someone inside waiting to meet you, yes?" She asked, nodding her head towards the door.

"Oh yes, that's right. Thank you." Maddie nodded her head, heading into the Skulk and Lurk and heading towards the back of the store. She had to admit, she wasn't quite expecting the person she was going to meet would be so young, just a teenager, a year younger than Danny would be, she thought. "Are you Sam Manson?" She asked, taking a seat across from her.

"Guilty as charged." Sam said, smiling at Maddie. When Jazz had called her and asked her to meet with her mother about Danny, Sam was at first uncertain about what to do. She had decided to accept it, however, thinking that it would be more suspicious not to, and decided that she could just leave out any details that she thought Phantom wouldn't want his mother to hear. She had taken care to hide her Specter Deflector underneath her clothes, she wouldn't want Mrs. Fenton to see her wearing one of her inventions, and then asking where on earth she had gotten it from in the first place.

She hadn't taken it off since last night, to be honest. Suddenly the silly looking belt became strangely comforting after having seen_ that thing_ herself. She couldn't help but feel just a little paranoid, knowing that Umbra could be hiding in almost anyone she met. At least with this if someone touched her and they were possessed, she would be able to tell.

Of course, she got the feeling that being exposed would only annoy Umbra all the more, and she wasn't too sure what she would do after that. But Sam had already decided that she wouldn't run away from this- that she would see it through. After all, she was no coward, and although what she had seen last night had been horrifying, she refused to let it defeat her. She wasn't that kind of girl, who would run screaming at the slightest shadow- she would show this Umbra that she wouldn't be intimidated, and that she wasn't going to let it run roughshod through her city any longer.

"I hear that you've seen my son and his friend." Maddie said, getting straight to the point. "Can you tell me about them? Do they appear well? Like they're eating right?" She asked.

"From what I can tell, although I didn't see them for very long." Sam told her. "I mostly met Valerie, although I did see Danny with her. He looks fine too." She lied- she knew full well that her son wasn't exactly fine, but even if she was a ghost hunter, she didn't want the woman to think that she was crazy for telling her that her son had half of his soul ripped out of him. Plus, she had been asked by Phantom to lie to Jazz, and he assumed that this would extend to the rest of his family as well.

She kind of hated it though, as natural as lying to her own parents had become for her. Somehow, lying to this worried mother didn't sit well with her. All Mrs. Fenton wanted from her was answers, to know that her son was safe and sound, and she couldn't give that to her.

"That's a relief, then." Maddie said, letting out a deep sigh. "Did you talk to them? What made you even think to look my daughter up in the first place?" She asked.

Sam chewed her lip, debating what to say for a moment. "I'll level with you Mrs. Fenton. What happened in Amity Park four years ago is now happening here. I just happened to stumbled upon Jazz's website while I was looking for more information." She told her. "And I remembered the posters when I ran into Valerie and Danny later. So I thought I should go back and find that site again, and contact the family."

"I see." Maddie narrowed her eyes, her heart nearly leaping out of her chest at Sam's first sentence. So Borley was undergoing the same events that Amity Park had four years ago? Suddenly, Talia's comment at the door made a more sense- if Borley was going through something like that, it would indeed be wise to ward off evil spirits. Which meant that somewhere in this city, Umbra was here, lurking. And her son and Valerie were here as well- somehow, Maddie couldn't dismiss that as a mere coincidence, not given the circumstances around their disappearance.

She just hoped it wasn't because of what she was thinking.

Maddie blinked then, frowning a little as she looked at Sam. "But what would someone of your age be doing looking into this?" She asked her, unable to help herself. It did strike her as a bit odd.

"Ah, school newspaper." Sam told her, smiling a little. Of course, she had yet to put pen to paper, and in fact, hadn't even published this week's issue of the paper. She had been so caught up in all of this, that she didn't have the time. "I run it."

"Oh, I see. Well." Maddie paused, considering her next words. "I don't think this is the sort of thing that you should involve yourself in, to be honest. It's much too dangerous for a girl of your age."

Sam twitched in irritation at the comment about her age, but she held her tongue for the moment. "And what exactly is it that you think is going on, Mrs. Fenton?" She asked her. "You seem to have some idea."

"Oh yes." Maddie nodded her head. "This is my area of expertise, in a sense. And now that we're here, I'll see if I can't do something about the matter." Maddie told her- but it appeared that she wouldn't disclose any information about it to Sam, no doubt concerned she would get in over her head. Little did Maddie know, Sam was probably already in over her head- and she knew that much as well.

"Well, that's comforting. As for Danny and Valerie, I can't tell you much, only that Valerie stopped me to ask me for some directions. To the town library." She lied, not wanting to tell her that they had met at the scenes of one of the suicides, or that she had met Phantom again since then. "But they both looked healthy." She told her.

"That _is_ good news." Maddie smiled, standing up. She got the feeling that like Jazz, there was something this girl wasn't telling her. She also got the very distinct impression that pressing her for information wouldn't work- this girl was like her, she wouldn't break, Maddie recognized that much right away. She would probably go far in life. "Well then, Sam, thank you for your time. It was reassuring to hear that they seem to be taking care of themselves, if nothing else."

And that at least, was sincere.

"Ah, are you leaving already?" Talia asked, peering up from behind the counter, where she was doing some cleaning. "Before you go, can I interest you in a small sample, as a fellow paranormal lover?" She asked, casting her eyes on Maddie, dangling a small blood red sachet attached to a thick violet string from one hand. "Blood blossom potpourri, in a sense. It's a charm to ward off evil spirits. I was thinking of selling them."

"Oh, now there's an idea." Maddie said, taking the sachet from her. "Jack and I mostly deal with technological ways of dealing with ghosts, but there's no harm in good old fashioned methods. I'll gladly accept it, if you're offering."

"Sometimes old fashioned ways are the best ways." Talia gave her a small grin. "I should give one to Sam too, she's always running into trouble." She commented, rolling her eyes a little. "Well, I hope you find your son, Maddie. It must be painful to be separated from someone you love."

"Yes." Maddie nodded her head, stringing the sachet around her neck, giving it a small sniff. Oh, and it smelled delightful as well! What a wonderful idea. Perhaps she should look into making small wards and charms herself in the future. "I hope so as well." She told her, giving her a small smile, before she left the bookstore.

At least, she hoped that she would, and that when she did, that the person inside was still her son. Because in the back of her mind, an idea had begun to form, and it was one that refused to leave.

She just hoped it would prove to not be true.

Because the last thing that Maddie wanted was that for her precious son to be possessed by Umbra.


End file.
